ISLAMABAD: Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Shah Mehmood Qureshi, has stated that his party will appeal the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Imran Khan’s arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as “legal” today (Wednesday).
The PTI vice chairman called an urgent meeting of the seven-member committee after Khan was taken into custody on Tuesday inside the IHC to assess the situation and come up with a detailed plan to ensure the safe and prompt release of the party leader.
Senators Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Azam Swati, Ijaz Chaudhry, Murad Saeed, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, and Hassan Niazi were among the committee members with whom Qureshi interacted.
Qureshi stated that a meeting of the senior leadership and emergency committee was called to assess the situation from all perspectives and to announce a thorough response plan, according to the party’s Central Media Department. Khan’s detention, according to him, was totally unnecessary and reprehensible.
Qureshi maintained that the demand for Khan’s release is a reasonable and legitimate demand.
Moreover, terming the Al-Qadir Trust case a “dirty political case” and a “revenge plot,” the PTI vice chairman asserted: “We will fight it politically and legally.”
He further added that PTI will hold peaceful but vigorous protests across the country to ensure the release of its chairman as soon as possible.
He also took contention with the fact that the IHC was raided to arrest Khan despite the fact that the PTI chairman had offered voluntary arrest in his statement before appearing in court.
“Arrest of Imran Khan is fascism and it is condemnable to attack the Islamabad High Court during biometrics and injure lawyers,” he remarked and made an appeal to the chief justice of IHC to issue an order for his immediate recovery and appearance in the court.
Qureshi said the entire nation was deeply concerned about the health and safety of Khan.
“There is a lot of anger in the entire nation against the abduction and torture of the PTI chairman and the party will register its strong protest without taking the law into its own hands. We will fight this battle through political and legal means for the safe recovery and release of the chairman,” he noted.
The PTI vice chairman made it clear that the schedule of the rallies released by Khan was intact.
“We are turning all these things into peaceful rallies. I appeal to all organisations to continue their preparations. All workers should remain peaceful and determined. We will win this war morally and politically,” he said.
He said people’s reaction to Khan’s arrest was natural as the arrest was unwarranted. Qureshi further added that Khan had — before leaving for Islamabad — said that he would voluntariliy surrender if there were warrants against him.
“There was no reason for resorting to violence, breaking glasses, manhandling lawyers, and arresting PTI activists,” he said.
