Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Saturday decided to hold anti-inflation protests across the country, which will culminate in the long march towards Islamabad.
According to a statement issued on Saturday by PML-N leader and the alliance’s secretary general Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a virtual meeting of the PDM decided that protest rallies would be held in all provincial capitals. “A protest will be held in Karachi on November 13, followed by one in Quetta on November 17 and in Peshawar on November 20,” Abbasi said, adding that the last rally would be taken out in Lahore, from where protesters would march towards the federal capital. “This movement will end only after sending [Prime Minister] Imran Khan packing,” it stated. “This is a movement to rid [the country] of Imran Khan.”
PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif briefed the meeting on his talks with opposition leaders. The PDM leadership also discussed the petrol price hike and rising inflation, and how to strengthen PDM’s country-wide protests.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith (MJAH) president Senator Prof Sajid Mir, and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai had joined the meeting via video link.
“[Spiralling] inflation, the National Accountability Ordinance, the so-called electoral reforms … among other issues came under discussion,” Abbasi said, adding that the PDM rejected the increase in the prices of electricity, gas, petrol, wheat flour, ghee, sugar, medicines and other essential commodities.
The PDM demanded that the increase in the prices of electricity, gas, petrol and other commodities be reversed. “The actual reason behind inflation is the historic corruption by Imran Khan’s government,” the statement said.
The participants of the meeting demanded that the agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund be made public and resolved to launch a “decisive movement against [the government’s] anti-people policies”. “The nation is unwilling to bear this government even for a minute, which has inflicted back-breaking inflation on the people,” Abbasi is quoted as saying. Abbasi said the PDM had also rejected the National Accountability Ordinance, election reforms, electronic voting machines, i-voting, deeming that they were based on mala fide intention.
“This forum considers government measures on non-democratic, so-called electoral reforms a bigger fraud than the 2018 election fraud,” he said. “This is a conspiracy to deny the people their right to vote and steal the election.”
Abbasi said the PDM resolved to foil the conspiracy of stealing the people’s mandate. He added that the members of the opposition alliance also committed to ensuring overseas Pakistanis’ representation in parliament in the true sense. “A strategy for the protest to foil this government’s conspiracy will be prepared, and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has been given the responsibility for devising the roadmap,” he said.
Abbasi said the PDM had also demanded immediate legal action against those found responsible for the Daska by-poll fiasco in the inquiry report. The report, he said, proved that the government had stolen votes in the by-election and perpetrated the kidnapping of presiding officers. “The vote robbers and kidnappers should be punished.”
Meanwhile, PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif held telephone talks with leaders of other political parties on Saturday. On Saturday, he spoke with Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Sirajul Haq and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai. During the telephonic contact, the PML-N president consulted the two leaders on the strategy for the upcoming joint sitting of the Parliament and for the NAB Amendment Ordinance. The leaders also discussed strategies to challenge the ‘black law’ within and outside parliament.
The PML-N president also suggested that a ‘response’ be given inside and outside parliament against the increasing inflation in the country and that a joint strategy should be adopted to tackle the issue. The other leaders agreed with Shehbaz, adding that ‘Naya Pakistan’ had become the most expensive Pakistan. On Friday, Shehbaz had a telephonic conversation with Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto and discussed the current political situation of the country.
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