LAHORE: Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) President Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz have resolved to start a movement from Gujranwala on October 16 to give people their right to vote with respect.
Addressing a joint media talk after holding a PDM meeting at Jati Umrah on Wednesday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman thanked Maryam Nawaz on inviting the PDM delegation. He said the PDM meeting was held in a good environment. All the opposition parties are united at the PDM platform. Maulana said Pakistan’s economy has been ruined by PTI rulers. The common man is in trouble due to inflation. People are unable to bring edibles home. People are committing suicides. Children are being sold. Was this the purpose of creating Pakistan?
The Maulana said opposition parties seeing the deteriorating situation in the country had decided to set an agenda against the incompetent government. Ahsan Iqbal has been tasked to contact other parties and highlight basic points of the PDM. He said the movement will be properly started from the public meeting of October 16 in Gujranwala with the maximum show of power. Then on October 18, a political gathering will be held in Karachi and on October 25, a very good show of people will be held in Quetta. He felicitated the workers who protested against the government in front of the parliament.
The Maulana said a legal democratic system under the constitution of Pakistan will be given to the people. The PTI government failed on the diplomatic front as well. The PDM will give a bright future to the nation with a commitment.
Maryam Nawaz addressing the media welcomed the PDM delegation. All members of the PML-N and the JUI-F are united, she said, adding that Maulana Sahib is a good friend of his father. She said the PDM is a big movement for the protection of the Constitution and democracy. It will fight the case of people whose votes were stolen in 2018. She pointed to the protest of pensioners who gathered outside the parliament on Tuesday for their rights. Media should have shown their protest, she wished. The PDM will fight the case of inflation and all rights of the masses.
She said when Nawaz Sharif and other leaders talk about the right to vote, they are implicated in a fake case of sedition. Then the government stops owning its cheap act. She said how India could become happy on the voice of rights and solidarity of Pakistan. Yes, India becomes happy when vote is stolen, a case is registered against the PM of Azad Kashmir and the three-time prime minister. She said the treason card is not the way to rule, the government should face challenges. Bashir Memon, who was an upright officer, has exposed PTI leaders. The PM pushed him to register cases against PML-N leaders.
Maryam said the PDM would expose the filthy acts of the PTI government. The PDM gathering in Gujranwala would shake the PTI government. She said she would invite Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to the Gujranwala Jalsa. This movement will be successful, she said. People would decide the fate of the government. Their right would not be usurped anymore. The PDM under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and presidentship of Maulana would not disappoint people.
To a question, Maulana said they are going to use their right to protest being within the limits of law. The PDM movement is aimed to give the right to vote to people. He said they would send the government home soon. The PDM is not going to instigate civil disobedience as people would send the government home before such a situation arises. Like the judges movement, the PDM would be successful.
To a query, Maryam said she doesn’t feel good to respond to cheap conspiracies. Religious cards and treason cards are always used, they are not afraid of it.
Earlier, Maryam welcomed the JUI-F delegation led by Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman at Jati Umrah on Wednesday evening. She congratulated Maulana on becoming the PDM president. She said they are happy on this decision and people are also happy because they have seen Maulana's commitment and enthusiasm for people's problems during Azadi March. She thanked Maulana on his condemnation for the arrest of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif. She said this arrest is a black chapter in the national history. Shahbaz Sharif is being punished for being the brother of Nawaz Sharif. Shahbaz is being punished for standing by the ideology, constitution and people of Pakistan. He is the prisoner of conscience and loyalty.
She said politicians are the protectors of ideological boundaries of Pakistan and this responsibility was given to elected members by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Separately, talking to media after attending the General Council meeting of the JUI-F Punjab chapter, Maulana Fazlur Rehman asserted that opposition parties have no intention to clash with national institutions as they believe in strengthening the country.
The PDM is launching rallies and public meetings all over the country as its caravan for freeing the country from the clutches of selected and corrupt mafia has begun moving forward, said Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the president of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
He said he wished that a strategy and organization had been made before arranging public meetings. He said that by registering a treason case against the prime minister of Azad Kashmir, what message was given to India. He said the first public meeting of the PDM has been scheduled for October 16 in Gujranwala where a strong show of public power would be displayed. To a question, he said the country would see the signs of positive changes after two or three public meetings of the PDM. To a question about Prime Minister Imran Khan warning that he would put the opposition leadership in jails, Maulana said: “He (Imran Khan) is on tenterhooks after seeing the public response to the PDM’s call and the opposition would counter every move of the coward rulers with full force.” He said the PTI government is not only selected but also unconstitutional and illegal, which has created serious financial problems for the people of Pakistan.
He lamented that the government quarters are trying to malign the PDM by portraying its leadership as anti-state and trying to clash with the state institutions which is a wrong impression. To a question, he said, the sedition case against the PML-N leadership was lodged by those who themselves were traitors, adding that he didn’t care about such cases and the coward rulers.
To another question, he said resignations from assemblies are part of the consensus options decided by the opposition parties and this option could not be ruled out. He said marching towards Islamabad and staging a sit-in has been planned in the strategy to counter the government. To a question, he said he wants to give a message to the leaderships of the PML-N and the PPP that they must not let people feel their absence.
