Ag Agencies
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) declared on Sunday that January would be Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) “last month in power”, as the opposition alliance went ahead with its Peshawar rally despite government warnings and criticism over coronavirus risks.
A large crowd gathered for the fourth anti-government rally, during which the PDM’s top leadership, including movement president and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari delivered speeches. However, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz left after she told participants she had received news of her grandmother’s death in London.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Aimal Wali Khan, Sardar Akhtar Mengal and Aftab Sherpao, were also present onstage. When the PPP chairman spoke, he vowed an “end” to the incumbent government declaring January as its “last month in power”. He said it would be the people who would decide how Pakistan was governed and what kind of leadership would rule it. Addressing the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular, he said the PDM would never leave them to fend for themselves, accusing the incumbent government of abandoning them. “The entire Pakhtunkhwa is demanding ‘go, Imran, go!’,” he said, adding: “This is the land of the brave, the honourable.”
Speaking of the government’s statements in the lead up to the rally accusing the opposition of “playing with people’s lives” over coronavirus fears, Bilawal said when it is time for the people to protest, the opposition is reminded of coronavirus “but when we demand salary increments for doctors, nurses and paramedics on the frontline, they forget all about it”.
“First there was a flour, sugar, and oil crisis, and now a gas crisis will arise,” he said, adding that people could not even buy eggs, let alone chicken any more at the rates they were going for.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the last to address the event. He regretted that Maryam Nawaz could not sit through the entirety of the event and expressed his condolences over the death of her grandmother Begum Shamim Akhtar.
Fazlur Rehman said all political parties agree and it is the movement’s “clear stance” that the incumbent government came to power through a “rigged election”. He claimed with the huge turnout witnessed in all the PDM rallies so far, the government had been “left bewildered”.
Shortly after the rally concluded, Minister for Information Shibli Faraz briefly appeared on television, pleading to all participants to quarantine themselves so the spread of coronavirus could be curbed. He also paid tribute to the people of KP for “boycotting the meeting and proving they are people with political insight”. “The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also thwarted the anti-people agenda of PDM,” he added. Faraz’s sentiment was echoed by Khyber Pakhtunkwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who said Peshawar “has rejected 11 parties of PDM who failed to attract people from across the province for rally”. “The people of Khyber Pakhtunkwa stand again with Prime Minister Imran Khan. The leadership of PDM disregarded public safety against Covid-19 for their politics.” He also said Peshawar “was and will remain the strong fort of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf”.
The rally was held amid elaborate security arrangements, and Special Assistant to the KP Chief Minister Kamran Bangash said a “call was traced this morning” due to which the threat of terrorism has increased for the public gathering.
