PDM reschedules rallies to Oct 18

Earlier, the public gatherings were scheduled to be held on Oct 11 and 25

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition has rescheduled its rallies to be held under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for October 11 and 25 in Quetta and decided to hold a joint public gathering on October 18 in the Balochistan’s capital, sources said.

The event will be hosted by JUI-F and PkMAP and addressed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Maryam Nawaz, Akhtar Mengal, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and other opposition leaders.

On September 20, the leaders of the 11 major opposition parties during a PPP-hosted all parties conference in Islamabad had announced formation of the PDM and launch of a three-phased anti-government movement under an “action plan” starting with countrywide public meetings, protest demonstrations and rallies before a “decisive long march” towards Islamabad in January 2021.

The opposition leaders had announced that they would use all political and democratic options, including no-confidence motions and en mass resignations from the parliament to seek “the selected prime minister’s resignation and an end to the role of the establishment in politics.”

Fazl became the president of the PDM after his unanimous nomination by the heads of all the constituent parties during their first formal meeting through video link on Saturday.

His name as the alliance president was proposed by PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and endorsed by PPP chairman Bilawal and others.

On the other hand, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Sunday hit hard at Nawaz Sharif saying that the former premier was trying to  "blackmail Pakistan and its institutions" in order to get relief from the corruption cases against him.

"You [Nawaz] were elected by this country thrice and now you are going against it just because you want relief from your cases? You are blinded, you want to take revenge from the masses. You want to blackmail Pakistan and its institutions. This will not happen," Faraz said while addressing a news conference in the federal capital.

Faraz noted that the PML-N chief had “not gone well” with any of the institutions.

The information minister said that the PML-N had not done anything for the country, except for plundering and burdening the people.

"Now you [Nawaz] have become a revolutionary, [acting] like you are statesman. You are accused of theft! You were not sent to jail because of any political dispute, [it was because] of the crimes you committed," the minister said.

The minister accused the former governments particularly that of PML-N for signing costly contracts in the power sector and held them responsible for high electricity rates.

Touching upon the CPEC, the minister said that the mega project was a manifestation of the undying friendship between Pakistan and China and that the government was determined to complete all the projects under its umbrella at the earliest.

“They [the PML-N] know they will not have any political future if the government succeeds,” he said.

He accused the PML-N supremo of lying before the masses with full confidence and issuing statements that had no relation with reality.

“They [PML-N] are trying to conceal their wrongdoings. The former ruling government had come to power but did nothing except being an enemy of the public,” he said.

“Now they [PML-N] talk about inflation. We inherited problems from the former governments,” he added.

Faraz pointed out that currently the account deficit, and the import and export deficit, stood at Rs30 trillion, while Rs2.9 trillion had been earmarked to pay the interest.

He alleged that the Nawaz league had artificially kept the dollar at low rate.

"We inherited a ruined economy. False PML-N policies brought immense loss to the industry. The PML-N failed to increase export within its five-years of tenure.”

The information minister alleged that former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had signed an expensive LNG contract to “run his airline” and thus pushed the country into troubles.

"We cannot step out of these agreements by buying costly LNG. This would be unfair to the country,” he said

Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan, the minister said it was the first time the country was being ruled by an honest leader and added the premier grew stronger with the increasing burdens.

“The PTI government had turned a $20 billion loss into a profit. The government this time, collected tax higher than the target,” he said.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Interior Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah termed the opposition parties’ movement as “anti-state and a malicious campaign against security institutions of the country” and opposed allowing “anti-state agenda” through the proposed rallies under the PDM.

The interior minister lashed out at Sharif, saying the PML-N chief “is finding refuge in anti-state propaganda to save himself from being held accountable”.

“The state will not allow any anti-state agenda,” Shah announced in a statement released by the interior ministry.

He said “the state is not so weak that it will succumb to the pressure of the ones who have looted the country for years and are now afraid of facing the reality.”

He stressed that “no democracy in the world allows maligning its own institutions”.

The statement said that the minister “is of the view that these rallies across Pakistan under the ‘pretext’ of Democratic Movement should not be allowed”, adding that the rallies had nothing to do with the betterment of the country or democratic practices.

Shah said the PDM rallies were “solely planned around anti-state agenda to create disruption across the country” and give room to the external elements to damage the country.

“The country’s honour and the dignity of its institutions are to be maintained and protected by all means,” Shah was quoted as saying.

Lambasting the PML-N supremo, Shah said that “Nawaz Sharif, who himself is an offender and disobeying the orders of the court by not returning is finding refuge in anti-state propaganda to save himself from being held accountable.

“Now that Nawaz knows that he has to either pay back the money or face the court, he has started undermining country’s institutions.”

Commenting on the oppositions parties’ allegations of rigging, the interior minister said PM Imran had announced in his initial speeches of 2018 that if any of the parties were of the view that the elections were rigged they should have identified the seats for re-examination.

He added that the opposition parties did not move ahead and had now “started hue and cry”.