‘United’ PDM to craft new charter on 14th

11-party alliance to mull strategy to ‘restore true democracy’ in country

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an 11-party opposition alliance formed to send the PTI-led government packing, announced on Sunday that the top leaders of its members would meet in Islamabad on November 14 to agree on a new charter to “restore true democracy” in the country.

The steering committee of the PDM will earlier meet on November 13 so that the par-ties in alliance can present their recommendations for the charter, which would be finalised by their leaders the next day.

The leaders of the alliance held a meeting in Islamabad, presided over by its president, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, during which the constituent parties discussed their future course of action.

PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif participated in the meeting via video link.Addressing a news confer-ence after the meeting, the JUI-F chief explained the process for carving out the new charter and also said a “united” PDM had agreed to stage its remaining anti-government rallies after the earlier three in Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta.

The alliance will hold a rally in Peshawar on November 22, followed by another in Multan on November 30 and in Lahore on December 13. Fazl, who was accompanied by PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf, said the participants of the PDM meeting deliber-ated upon the overall political situation of the country.

“One of the major chal-lenges of the country is the economic crisis which has made lives of people miser-able and made it difficult for them to make ends meet,” he added. The JUI-F chief said the PDM had expressed serious con-cerns over the delay in the in-vestigation into PML-N leader Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar’s arrest from his hotel room in Karachi last month.

“Despite the assurance of the army chief that the inves-tigation would be completed in 10 days, there has been no headway even after the passage of three weeks,” he added. Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had or-dered an inquiry into the ‘Karachi incident’ — events that led to the registration of an FIR against Safdar and his subsequent arrest.

The JUI-F chief said the opposition leaders had also condemned the con-troversial statement of Interior Minister Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah wherein he had warned the opposition about Taliban attacks. “The statement is tanta-mount to threatening the PML-N leaders that their party members would be killed in the same way ANP [Awami National Party] leaders were murdered,” he maintained.

The participants of the meeting, he added, also stressed the need for de-ciding the foreign funding case against the ruling PTI at the earliest. Fazl alleged that the case was being delayed on purpose. “Why is the foreign fund-ing case still pending? It clearly means that there is something fishy,” he claimed.

To a question, the JUI-F chief said it was well un-derstood who was being referred to when the word “establishment” was used.“It is not an issue. The media has turned it into an issue,” he claimed in the wake of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s re-cent interview, wherein he distanced himself and his party from Sharif’s stance against the security establishment, giving rise to speculations that the con-stituent parties were not on the same page.

“We respect the coun-try’s institutions,” the Maulana said. “However, if the names of politicians can be mentioned, then the names of individuals be-longing to the institutions can also be mentioned,” he added. “This is not a crime.

”The JUI-F chief said some adopted a respectful approach while dealing with this matter while others were more practical.

Speaking to reporters, PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf said the joint declaration issued by the opposition parties after their all par-ties conference was the PDM’s charter and it was agreed that the names of individuals or a single institution would not be mentioned at public gatherings.“A new APC has to be called if the names of individuals will be mentioned at rallies.