Court Arrests: Will it deliver elections to Imran Khan?

Jail Bharo Tehreek (court arrests) is a form of political protest. In this case, the protesters voluntarily allow themselves to be arrested in order to fill the authority’s jails. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf recently launched a court arrest campaign in Lahore as a tactic to pressurise the government for early elections. However, when the police prepared for arrests and urged PTI workers to surrender to the authorities, none of the party’s members showed up to pay heed to their call. This week, Bol News asked four leading experts: Will the Jail Bharo Tehreek deliver elections to Imran Khan?

Zafar Hilaly
Senior Analyst

No, I do not think the Jail Bharo movement is going to deliver elections to Imran Khan, and frankly, I do not think that it is going to have the response that Gandhi used to have in his movements. I think they will go to jail, but they will be released; they would not be in jail. Some of them will be in jail, but most of them will be released.

I think they will take them 100 kilometres and drop them off. I do not think that it is going to be a big thing. I think the question is that this government needs to decide whether they want to have elections or not. And just because this coalition government might lose the elections, this is the reason why they are afraid to hold elections. The Jail Bharo movement is not an act of desperation. Why is it desperation? Imran Khan has the upper hand, doesn’t he? The whole nation is with him. He has the backing of the masses, and with all this, he is making life difficult for the government.

Why should Imran Khan show restraint under the current circumstances? What is he doing? Is he breaking up the country? Is he damaging stuff? No. He has a political party to lead, and they have a good cause. Are you trying to say that the people can run the country into the ground and then no one should say anything because the country is in a sensitive moment? If the elections are held, Imran Khan will come back with a thumping majority.

Don’t you think so? Let us hope that if he returns, he does better than the last time, and that he has learned from his mistakes. I do not think he’s good at managing things; I think he has a lot of flaws, but believe me, he is better than the crooks we have had for the last 30 years.

Huma Baqai
Rector MITE

The whole strategy is: will the threat of Jail Bharo deliver elections to Imran Khan? So I think it will, because now the controversy is between Alvi’s letter and his constitutional take and the election commission’s response to it.

More importantly, I think the kind of crowd that we saw in Lahore on February 20 is a wakeup call for anyone who thinks that they can just marginalise him. So essentially, I think Jail Bharo is just a threat and a pressure tactic. The debate has gone beyond the jail Bharo movement; they have given a date for elections in April. If the Jail Bharo movement delivers elections to Imran Khan and if they actually announce elections in April, then its threat will automatically become effective. If they achieve whatever they want to do, then obviously it will be effective. Although I agree that it is an act of desperation by the government, the result is still not out yet. If the elections do not take place, the outcome will be known, putting Imran Khan in a bind. He will have to initiate it and do it.

But if the elections are announced, then without doing anything, they have achieved everything. The PDM government will win this round if the elections do not occur, but if they are able to successfully hold elections, then Imran Khan’s strategy will be successful. Imran is only playing with street power. That is his major strength. Recently, the former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs of Pakistan, Hammad Azhar, was only talking about the inflation in the country. This is the weakness of a common man. He is thinking that Imran is talking about his problems. Although I am sure Imran will have no strategy if he comes back into power, The IMF has actually asked Imran about his plans to resolve the economic crisis in the country.

Raja Aamir Abbas
Advocate Supreme Court

Well, I think that because it is a form of protest and agitation, it is not guaranteed. If the elections are not held within 90 days, then every political party has the right to protest. Obviously, it will have a strong impact on the government. Moreover, the matters are in the hands of the court now, particularly the Supreme Court.

Now the question is about public importance. Now they want to exercise their rights to vote. At the moment, we are also facing a constitutional crisis where the constitutional bodies like the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the governors are not acting according to the constitution and are not abiding by the promises they made while taking oath.

The whole country has lost hope in these leaders, and they are desperate for a change. They are seeing the country’s economy being doomed in front of them and the political system being destroyed, so everyone is obviously frustrated.

I believe that if the present regime continues and if the present policies continue, then the public might come onto the street, which would automatically disturb the law and order situation of the country. The government is not just acting irresponsibly; it is being oblivious to the whole situation. They are taking the country to a point from which it will be nearly impossible to return, be it economically, politically, morally, or ethically.

If they are not stopped, then Pakistan will get into a situation that would be worse than Sri Lanka. The only solution is to hold elections and for this government to go. The Jail Bharo movement is not something new. Such movements have been seen in the past as well, when Pakistan was not even created.

Dr Hassan Askari
Political Scientist

This is a tactic to build pressure on the government and also to keep the party mobilised. These are the general objectives of this movement, so maybe among these objectives, they might achieve their purpose of holding the elections as well.

They are doing all this so that the government gets under pressure and ultimately Imran’s demand for elections gets approved. Both parties are equally disturbed; both have urgent issues to deal with: Imran is seeking early elections, and the other side is somehow accusing Imran Khan of not holding elections. They both have opposite agendas to pursue. They need to find a middle ground, they need to come on one page, but both sides are not working to find one. Both sides are working to undermine the other side. Both are criticising one another without realising the situation of the country. The coalition government is worried about how to utilise Imran’s pressure. Their heavy reliance is on the state apparatus.

The Jail Bharo movement is one of the political strategies that the parties use. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this. In the past, several parties internationally have used this strategy to put pressure on the government. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But ultimately, it is increasing conflict and tension in the political system.

Moreover, the economic situation of the country is getting worse with every passing day. I think there is a lot more uncertainty in the present system, and it would be difficult to say what the situation of the country will be in the next four to eight weeks. With the current political polarisation and the dreadful economic crisis, the future of Pakistan seems to be dark and unpredictable.