Combined opposition on The Mall

Big guns fail to pull big crowd

LAHORE: Despite over 18 parties coming together to take down the Punjab government, the turnout failed to match the pomp.

In attendance at the anti-government rally in Lahore were the supporters of heavyweights like Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), besides others including Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Awami Muslim League (AML), Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP), Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Majlis Wahadat Muslimeen (MWM) and others. But the numbers were not impressive.

The rally at The Mall started with PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari claiming, “Deposed premier Nawaz Sharif is trying to play with the fate of the country only to safeguard his political interests. He is trying to become another [Bangladesh founder] Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who broke the country.”



Zardari made these remarks while addressing the opening session of the opposition parties’ public gathering on Wednesday.

He claimed he was in a position to send Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government packing anytime. “PPP does not want to go to this extent, but it will not allow Sharif to become another Sheikh Mujib,” he maintained.

Zardari said Sharif had shown that he could go to any extent to save his political career, even at the cost of national security.

He told the participants of the gathering that despite the martyrdom of PPP chairperson and former premier Benazir Bhutto, the PPP never talked of breaking the country.



“I raised the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappay’ after she was assassinated,” he said, adding, “PPP is a party of martyrs, and unlike the ruling party, it loves Pakistan and will never go against the country despite all odds.”

He called Jati Umra – the Sharif family’s residence – the ‘biggest threat’ to the country.

During the PPP regime, he said, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif was used to making false allegations against the PPP, but the party never reacted because it did not want to derail democracy.

He said Benazir Bhutto only criticised military dictators because they did irreparable losses to the country. “The nation was still paying the price of military rulers’ misdeeds,” he alleged.

Zardari said political forces of the country had been teamed up and they would not sit back till they got justice for the families of Model Town victims and for children like Zainab, the child who was raped and murdered in Kasur.

Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira and other senior party leaders flanked Zardari.



Qadri’s speech

Next up, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri said the rally was staged to get democracy in a true sense and to bring in rule of law for the poor. “We have only one agenda, which is justice for whole nation,” he said.

Speaking to a crowd carrying the flags of almost two dozen parties, Qadri said the steering committee of the PAT and other parties would meet after two days and decide the new course of action in their protest against the Punjab government.

“It is in the interest of the common man that the rule of the Sharifs comes to an end, otherwise justice cannot prevail,” he said.

He added that the PAT’s quest for justice was not theirs alone, “it has become a fight for all parties and the whole nation”.



After stating that they were there for the Model Town victims, he said, “We are not here to get any post in the government… we just want supremacy of the constitution and rule of law.”

Qadri reached the venue before 5pm, and leaders of the PPP, PML-Q, SIC, and MWM had already taken choice spots on the large container.

“It is fortunate that PPP and PTI activists are sitting together,” said a member of the PPP, adding that the parties had different opinions, but they gathered there for one cause.

“We also have to give the judiciary relief from the Nawaz league,” Qadri also quipped during his speech.

He added that the country must be freed from inhuman rulers who suppressed human rights and plundered national wealth.

He also repeated Zardari’s comparison of Sharif with Sheikh Mujib and accusations regarding Sharif’s alleged closeness with Modi.

“The country is under threat from the Sheikh Mujib of this era,” he said, as he vowed to avoid taking any unconstitutional step and only “provide peace to the people, not snatch it from them”.



Khan says

PTI Chairman Imran Khan spoke in the second half, indicating that he may tender his resignation from the National Assembly as “the current parliament has violated very basic principles of democracy by voting in support of the corrupt Sharifs”.

Khan slammed parliamentarians for bringing a resolution in favour of former premier Nawaz Sharif who, he claimed, was ousted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on corruption charges.

“You will not find a similar example in any democracy in the world where the parliament endorses that a corrupt person can continue to lead a political party,” he said.

He accused the Punjab government of ruining the police system in the entire province. Drawing comparison between Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), he said the K-P police had been depoliticised, resulting in crime in the province falling to its lowest levels in a decade.



“People of Punjab have lost confidence in police system because the PML-N government has politicised the entire system in the province,” he maintained.

Khan alleged that the Punjab government had deliberately killed peaceful protestors in Model Town in June 2014. He said the police would not dare commit such a big blunder on its own and the entire episode was orchestrated to ‘teach a lesson’ to the PAT leadership.

“The entire nation watched on television how the police opened fire at unarmed protesters,” he added.

Quoting various incidents of crimes, he said, “Crime happens everywhere in the world, including K-P, but there is a great contrast between both provinces. In K-P police arrest criminals and punish them for their misdeeds, while in Punjab, criminals are being protected.”

The PTI chief said victims in Punjab appealed to the Pakistan Army and the Chief Justice of Pakistan for justice. He also referred to the “lack of action” after the Kasur children pornography scandal in 2015, suggesting that the rape and murder of Zainab might have been avoided if the law had taken its course earlier.

“Now, around 11 girls have been raped and murdered in the same area, but the government did nothing. Zainab’s case has shaken the entire nation, but culprits are still at large due to the negligence of the government and police,” he underlined.

On the other hand, in K-P, he claimed police averted an Army Public School-like incident with their timely response to a terrorist attack at Agriculture University in Peshawar.

To recall the gruesome killing in Model Town, Khan also showed a video clip to the participants of the public gathering. He assured Qadri that all workers and supporters of the PTI were at his disposal in his struggle to ensure justice for the families of the victims.



Elahi alleges

Earlier, PML-Q senior central leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi accused Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif of being a merchant of death.

Elahi, himself an ex-CM of the province, said Wednesday's gathering was a unique and historic event where everyone had assembled in the interest of justice.

His speech continued with the guns pointed firmly at Shehbaz, who he also accused of killing peaceful demonstrators by ordering the police to shoot at them, and of destroying Punjab in his decade in charge.

He said that elder Sharif was feeling pains about Balochistan electing Abdul Quddus Bizenjo as chief minister, adding, “The saviour of Kulbhushan Jadhav and friend of Modi should not insult elected representatives by calling this democratic change a conspiracy.”

Earlier, when he and other PML-Q leaders including Tariq Bashir Cheema, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Muhammad Basharat Raja, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and Sardar Vickas Moakal arrived with their supporters, they were warmly greeted by Dr Qadri and other leaders with slogans in his support and for the Punjab government to resign. The crowd also demanded compensations for the martyrs as huge banners with portraits of Elahi, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Moonis Elahi hovered over them.

Elahi said that like other movements starting from Lahore, this one would also be successful. He accused the Sharifs of despoiling Balochistan with their “pharaoh-like” attitudes, adding that their own party continued to desert them.

He said time for Shehbaz and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah to resign had ended, and “now no safe passage will be given”, and that the opposition alliance would stand together to send Shehbaz packing.

“I cannot forget the scenes at Minhajul Quran on the first day. From that very day, PML-Q has stood by Dr Tahirul Qadri for securing justice for the families of the oppressed,” he said.

The PML-Q leader blamed Shehbaz for “crime spikes” in Lahore, Kasur and elsewhere. He claimed that during his tenure as CM, the law and order budget in Punjab was Rs35 billion, which had since risen to Rs146 billion, but heinous crimes had increased manifold and FIRs were registered against murder victims.

AML’s Sheikh Rashid, PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi, PSP’s Mustafa Kamal and numerous others also spoke.