Jamaat-e-Islami irked over use of its flag in PDM’s Peshawar rally

Jamaat-e-Islami — an opposition party which is not part of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — is not pleased about the display of its flag at the opposition alliance's Peshawar power show on Sunday.

PDM— the 11-party alliance aiming to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan's government— had placed JI's flag on their posters that covered the stage at yesterday’s rally in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital.

The party’s information secretary, Qaisar Sharif, posted a screenshot of the PDM stage on Twitter and reminded that the JI is not part of the alliance.

“The use of the JI’s flag is not an appropriate behaviour,” he said, adding that the JI is a separate entity and is holding its own rallies.

“I believe the flag was used incorrectly,” he said, adding that the PDM organisers should take notice of the incident.

The PDM rally on Sunday was attended by PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz and other senior PDM leaders despite being denied the permission to organise the public gathering by the city administration.

Jamaat-e-Islami, which is holding its own rallies to oust the PTI-led federal government across the country, has been highly critical of the 11-party alliance too.

JI chief Sirajul Haq has said that the grand opposition alliance was no different from the incumbent government.

“The PDM is [formed] to secure the interests of a few families, whereas we [the JI] are talking about securing the interests of this country’s poor, students, farmers, mothers and their children,” he said  while addressing a party rally in Swat on Sunday. “The governance in this country is running on the basis of ‘contracts’... the Jamaat-e-Islami does not stand for this.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a tweet, had accused the opposition alliance of "callously destroying peoples' lives and livelihoods".

He said the PDM was "deliberately endangering the lives and livelihoods of people, because if cases continue to rise at the rate we are seeing, we will be compelled to go into complete lockdown..."

(With additional input from DNA)