Pakistan: PTI to intensify protests on August 14, announces former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 6 (ANI): pakistan-tehreek-e-insaf">Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser has announced that the party's protest movement will enter its second phase on August 14, the country's Independence Day, Geo News reported.
Speaking in Swabi on Tuesday night, Qaiser said that after the August 14 protests, the party will take its movement to Sindh.
"The second phase of our protest will be on August 14, then we will go to Sindh," Qaiser said in Swabi late Tuesday night as the party took to the streets to mark the second anniversary of party founder Imran Khan's incarceration and demand his release.
Earlier in the day, police arrested more than 240 opposition party activists, with at least 122 arrested trying to block roads and threatening law and order in Lahore, said Deputy Inspector General of police Faisal Kamran.
Further, the Party spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari reported that over 200 activists were detained in Lahore alone.
According to Geo News, the Punjab police said that Deputy Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Moeen Riaz Qureshi, MPs Farrukh Javed Moon, Khawaja Salahuddin, Shoaib Amir, Amanullah Khan, and Iqbal Khattak, had been released.
Rehana Dar, who was among those detained from outside Aiwan-e-Adal, was released, the PTI central media cell confirmed.
The arrests came as the authorities had beefed up security, imposing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) -- barring illegal gatherings and large assemblies.
Section 144 was imposed in Islamabad as well as Rawalpindi, which also houses Adiala Jail, where the PTI founder is incarcerated, as per Geo News.
Meanwhile, speaking during a protest rally in Peshawar, CM Gandapur said that people had answered the PTI founder's call and that "now this protest will be held on a daily basis".
"The party leadership's plan of action regarding August 13 and 14 will be announced later," Gandapur said.
"We want the supremacy of the Constitution and law in the country and the PTI founder to be released [from prison]," he remarked.
However, the chief minister's rally came to a rather abrupt end after he left without addressing the party workers, prompting them to protest against their own CM. (ANI)