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The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentary party has decided to launch a nationwide movement from August 5 for the release of party chief Imran Khan and acceptance of other demands, a day that will mark the completion of the former prime minister’s third year in prison.The decision was made at a meeting chaired by party’s interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad, where PTI lawmakers discussed parliamentary affairs and the party’s strategy going forward.PTI General Secretary Salman Akram Raja told Dawn that the movement would include public meetings, demonstrations and a long march. “It was also decided that Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas’s opinions will be sought for finalising the protest plans and other activities,” he said.At a press conference, Gohar said the meeting discussed the health of Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi. He said August 5 would mark the completion of three years of the PTI founder’s imprisonment and rallies would be held across the country to mark the occasion.Khan was arrested on August 5, 2023 after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of corrupt practices in the Tosha Khana case. He has since been convicted in several cases and remains in solitary confinement at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Raja alleged that Khan had been kept in solitary confinement for months and that no one from his family or lawyers had been allowed to meet him since December last year. “He is not given proper medical care nor is he getting justice from the courts. The oppression and injustice in the country must come to an end,” he said.He also warned the government not to launch a crackdown against party workers.”Extreme brutality is being carried out here. Imran Khan is being denied meetings with his lawyers, while his sisters are also being barred from seeing him,” Raja said as he sat surrounded by party workers outside the jail.Every week, Khan’s sisters, lawyers and party workers gather outside Adiala Jail to press the government to allow the family to meet him. On June 14, Khan was taken to a hospital in Islamabad for treatment of his ailing right eye and later shifted back to prison.In a separate development, PTI lawyer Awais Younas Chaudhry submitted a list of six leaders to the Adiala jail administration for a meeting with Imran Khan. The list includes Haji Amanullah Awan, Muhammad Shahid Ali Chahan, Syed Hamid Ihsan, Sajjad Ali Butt, Noman Mughal and Aqsa Hayyat Lali.
