Workers of the Rawalpindi chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) made their presence felt on Saturday by taking out a rally on Benazir Bhutto Road to express solidarity with their embattled party leader.
The rally, which set off from the Rawalpindi Press Club and culminated at Committee Chowk, was attended by scores of party workers and local PML-N leadership. PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi led the rally.
“We are here to record our peaceful protest to express solidarity with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. We will not tolerate any illegal step from any quarter, including the protesters, to oust the government,” said PML-N city president Sardar Nasim, while addressing participants.
PML-N local leaders, including MNAs Malik Ibrar, Tahira Aurangzeb, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, MPA Raja Hanif, former MNA Haji Pervez Khan, Malik Shakeel Awan and Chaudhry Sarfaraz Afzal also participated in the rally.
PML-N activists were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans in favour of Sharif.
“How can an elected prime minister step down and give in to the so-called pressure of a handful of people,” asked Nasim.
He said it was their leadership’s positive gesture and sagacity that protesters were allowed to stage sit-ins in the Red Zone. “This doesn’t mean that they can go on packing up the whole system.”
When asked why the rally was organised after a lapse of seven days, he said the party leadership had restrained them from taking out protest rallies at this critical juncture. “But the workers pressured the local leadership to allow them to organise a peaceful rally.” Aurangzeb said the prime minister will not step down and will complete his five-year term.
“The entire nation is backing the prime minister so why should he resign,” she said, advising Imran Khan to focus on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where his party is in power instead of demanding the prime minister to step down.
The garrison city is considered a stronghold of the PML-N. In the 2013 general elections, the party lost only one seat — NA-55 — where Imran Khan defeated Hanif Abbasi.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2014.
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Imran your stupid advisors are spoiling your image as a responsible national leader.
Agitation in politics is a dangerous trend and can turn into a civil war. Pakistan does not deserve such extreme acts no matter what the party is. In every democratic country the losers concede the election and accept defeat but not in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They want to come into power at the cost of the country, what a shame.