Opposition ratchets up pressure on govt ahead of PDM drive

Sharif berates current system of governance

LAHORE:

The opposition on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on the government by saying that they would stage a massive show against the PTI government in the rallies and public gatherings to be held under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) from October 16.

The PDM is scheduled to hold its first public rally in Gujranwala on October 16, followed by Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, and Lahore on October 18 and 25, November 22 and 30 and on December 13.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif addressed a workers’ convention via video link from London which also addressed by key party leaders like Vice President Maryam Nawaz, former defence minister Khawaja Asif, Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal, etc, while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari hold a virtual meeting with his party-men in the run-up to the opposition movement.

Addressing a convention of PML-N’s parliamentarians, Nawaz Sharif said he was at a loss to understand the system in which one government was replaced by another and there was no end to that practice.

“This is a system where neither parliament nor the judiciary nor any other state institutions is allowed to function in accordance with the Constitution,” the three times former prime minister said.

Sharif, while alluding to the security establishment, said the powers that be continued to dominate the system.

On the other hand, PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif once again questioned the PTI government over its policies and demanded why the “selectors” had imposed Imran Khan on the nation.

“Instead of giving 10 million jobs, they rendered 15 million [people] jobless. They did not provide a single house despite promising five million homes,” he said.

Sharif was addressing a joint session of party parliamentarians and ticket holders virtually from London.

Commenting on the state of economy and issues faced by the people, the PML-N chief noted the Prime Minister Imran Khan had taken massive u-turns to take acquire loans from the IMF and regretted the rapid depreciation of rupee during the PTI regime.

“Who should we hold responsible? Imran Khan or the selectors,” he asked.

"Imran's selectors, you will have to answer for this. You cannot go home without answering," he added.

"Without Pakistan's parliament, its institutions cannot operate. Even the judiciary cannot work. We will make you answer, we will not sit back until we get one."

Sharif said that the PML-N would be held most responsible if they did not speak for the masses “who were suffering under this incompetent regime”.

He said that they cannot live like slaves and would make Pakistan a respectable nation in the world.

"We are not sheep that can be herded and if this has been happening [in the past], it will not happen anymore! We will make Pakistan a respectable country," he stressed and added that any member who "was scared should sit at home.

Recalling his September 20 speech, the PML-N chief observed that he had identified the root cause of the problems and that without identifying them, they would not be able to move forward.

In the PPP-hosted multiparty conference held last month, Nawaz had said that the opposition's struggle was not against PM Imran but those who brought him to power through the 2018 elections.

Speaking about the country’s army, Sharif that the military can only become the "world's best" if it works within its ambit as prescribed by the Constitution.

"I know an overwhelming majority [in the army] sticks to constitutional boundaries, but there are few who have digressed. Those names are few, they can literally be counted on fingertips [but] they have defamed the entire army and that is not acceptable to me," he said.

"I don’t respect those who are involved in rigging and shifting votes from one ballot to another,” he added.

“Despite massive rigging, despite seeking support of MNAs from tribal areas, MQM in Sindh and Balochistan, Imran only managed to make his government with four votes.”

He emphasised that to make Pakistan a respected state, the respect of public mandate mandatory.

Hinting at the PTI government, he said that “those who moved from country to country with a begging bowl cannot get this country and its passport respect”.

During his hour-long speech, he also showed the interview of former DG FIA in which he had accused the premier of instructing him to file cases against the Sharif family and the clip of Justice Shaukat Siddiqui in which he had accused the agencies  of being involved in judicial matters.

PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz directed the party leaders to gear up for the anti-government campaign.

"We are about to enter a decisive struggle," she said.

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 masse 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.

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

Speaking on the occasion, Maryam reminded that "vote ko izzat do” (give respect to the vote) had always been the narrative of her father Nawaz Sharif and that the PML-N supreme leader was fighting for the peoples’ rights.

"The parliamentarians present here are witness to the fact that the sanctity of the vote that has been violated," she said.

"The rigging of the [2018 general elections] had begun three months prior [...] the vote was not respected, and the requirement for bringing people to power was only that they obey orders," she said.

Maryam said that when such people come to power, then inflation rises, the law and order situation worsens and the rights of the people are violated.

"When [Nawaz] fights for the people's rights and demands that the rule of law should reign supreme, he is nominated in treason cases," she said, and added "What kind of traitor does six nuclear tests in response to five nuclear tests and makes a country’s defence invincible, ends darkness of load shedding, ends terrorism?”

She said that her father had strengthened the country’s defence and had made motorways on which fighter jets could land and take off.

She said that despite the economic crisis in the country, Sharif had initiated operations to curtail terrorism in the country.

“He [Nawaz Sharif] did not refuse to increase their [army’s] salary to meet the expenses of the then ongoing battles. He imposed cuts on his government budget to spare money for the army,” she said.

The PML-N vice-president regretted that Islamabad High Court had ordered to summon Sharif through newspaper advertisements.

“People will in fact see Musharraf in those posters who abrogated the constitution but still was allowed to go abroad and no court had the audacity to stop him,” she said.

She also dispelled the impression that Sharif had left his workers in time of difficulty and added that “Nawaz took the first blows to himself before reaching out to his workers”.

Former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also asked the party's lawmakers to be on the frontlines when the movement is launched.

"From today, we need to commit that we will not hold back [...] even if we have to go to jails,” he said.

Another PML-N stalwart Khawaja Asif noted that the nation was disturbed as the economy was in "shambles".

"For how long will we pay the price?" he asked. "The leader [Nawaz Sharif] has announced a war, and this is the war for democracy."

Later, the party also passed a resolution to repose their confidence in Nawaz Sharif to second his narrative, support PDM movement, condemn the inflation and price hikes and increase in prices of gas and electricity, show solidarity with government employees who were protesting in Islamabad, condemn the registration of FIR against PML-N leaders under charges of sedition and arrest of Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz and to condemn the ban on Nawaz Sharif speeches by pemra.

Separately, while addressing a meeting of the party leaders through video link from the Bilawal House, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari observed that the PDM had become a beacon of hope for the people.

He maintained that the PPP had played a pivotal role in the formation of the newly formed opposition’s alliance like it did for the past movements of MRD and ARD.

He said the PTI government had failed on all fronts and that it had nothing to do but hurl accuses against the former regimes.

He said that it was the ripe time for the people of the country to rise up and “demolish the sandy castle of the selected regimes built through intrigues and naked rigging and theft of public mandate”.