Gujranwala: The Punjab police have arrested as many as 70 party workers under ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ from Gujrat and Gujranwala divisions where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claims to have millions of its supporters.

According to a report, PTI’s Jail Bharo Movement (court arrest movement) has lost luster as most of the PTI leaders and workers avoid surrendering themselves to the police. 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”.

In both Gujranwala and Gujrat, the police continued to make announcements but the PTI leadership was not interested in the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’, and some of them had even disappeared after handing some PTI activists over to the police.

Following the news, former MPA Ch Shujaat Nawaz Ajnala reached Gujranwala to surrender himself before the police on Sunday. Chaudhry Shujaat Ajnala is a close associate of Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain.

MNA Syed Faiz-ul-Hasan Shah also returned home along with a handful of people without surrendering themselves before the police. In Gujranwala, too, PTI workers and ticketholders are looking for excuses to evade arrests.

Similarly, in Gujrat, the city of PTI Central President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the party workers are not so enthusiastic about the ‘Jail Bharo’ movement, and some of them have even disappeared. However, some PTI workers, led by former MPA Salim Sarwar Jorra, are heading to Gujranwala to turn themselves into the police.

The police are of the view that PTI ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ appeared to be losing its steam as none of the party’s leaders or workers voluntarily surrendered themselves to the police. Earlier, the PTI chairman Imran Khan paid rich tribute to the people for taking to the street on the call of former prime minister Imran Khan who announced the ‘Jail Bharo’ campaign on February 4 and it was kicked off on February 22 from Lahore.