ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has finalised its strategy to counter the ‘crackdown plan’ of the federal government and decided to resist the Centre’s move to initiate large-scale arrests of the PTI leaders following the verdict of the prohibited funding case.
The coalition government has reportedly planned to launch crackdowns against PTI leaders following the verdict announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the prohibited funding case besides mulling over the inclusion of Imran Khan’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL).
According to reports, the coalition government planned to launch crackdowns against Imran Khan’s close aides and PTI’s central and provincial leaders across the country through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other concerned institutions under the 12-point charge sheet of the ECP.
Sources said that Asad Qaiser, Imran Ismail, Qasim Khan Suri, Shah Farman and many others could face arrests in the expected crackdowns.
It was learnt that the government’s machinery will swing into action across the country after getting a green signal from the Centre. Some reports suggested that PTI’s secretariat employees and central finance board members will also be probed in the coming days.
Moreover, the Centre will also approach the Supreme Court (SC) for disqualification of PTI chief and former premier Imran Khan in light of the ECP verdict.
News360 sources said that PTI prepared a strategy to foil the crackdowns of the federal government by asking the Punjab government to immediately initiate arrests of the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), especially the ruling party in the Centre, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), who were accused in different cases.
Sources said that the Punjab government has been advised to make a tit-for-tat move against the coalition government if it starts arrests of PTI leaders. They revealed that the provincial government in Punjab will immediately arrest the accused PDM leaders maintaining equal proportion.
It is pertinent to mention here that PTI will also stage a demonstration outside ECP headquarters and its other offices in Lahore and Peshawar today on the call of Imran Khan against the biased moves of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the verdict in the PTI prohibited funding case.
On the other hand, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah threatened to strictly deal with PTI leaders if they dare to enter Red Zone in the name of protest against the ECP.