Gujranwala      -  Contrary to high expectations of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leadership, just 70 workers and supporters of the party courted arrest in Gujranwala on Sunday.

The movement, according to the PTI rationale, aims to counter the "attack on constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights" and the "economic meltdown by the incumbent government". The PTI ‘court arrest movement appeared to be losing its steam as none of the party’s leaders or workers voluntarily surrendered themselves to the police as the Peshawar phase of the court arrest movement concluded — the city is considered as stronghold of the party — on February 23. PTI leader Yasmin Rashid, however, claimed that six prison vans boarded with PTI workers have departed for jail so far.She said that the police were facing a shortage of prison vans to shift the PTI workers to the jail. She added that the local police barred female workers of the party from boarding the prison van.

The PTI leader paid rich tribute to the people for taking to the street on the call of former prime minister Imran Khan who announced the ‘court arrest’ campaign on February 4 and it was kicked off on February 22 from Lahore. Besides others, Chaudhry Ilyas Gujjar, his nephew and Qamar Abbas Tarrar have courted arrest, said Rashid. Sharing a photo of former MPA Zafarullah Cheema and Nazar Muhammad Gondal in handcuffs on Twitter, the PTI leaders said that they were the first who voluntarily surrendered to the police in the city.

It is pertinent to mention here that several petitions have been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking bail for the PTI leaders who voluntarily surrendered themselves to the police but taking to Twitter, senior party leader Fawad Chaudhry wrote: “More than two hundred workers in Lahore and Rawalpindi are currently in various jails and they have refused to submit bail requests.”

The party’s senior leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and Azam Swati, alongside other party workers, voluntarily surrendered themselves to the Lahore police on the first day of the campaign — and later, some of the others followed suit. The movement subsequently reached Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Multan.

A day earlier, PTI Chairman Imran Khan strongly condemned the “fascist approach” of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government for treating his party’s workers and leaders detained during the “court arrest movement” like terrorists. In his tweet, Khan claimed that his party’s leadership and workers are protesting against fascism, the violation of fundamental rights, and the crushing of the nation.