People have rejected PDM: Pervez Khattak

NOWSHERA: Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak said on Sunday that the masses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had rejected the politics of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and insisted that the opposition alliance had no capacity to send the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government packing.

“The people of Punjab are with the PTI. The governments cannot be forced to resign by arranging public meetings and taking out processions,” he said while speaking at a function at Dheri Katikhel in Hakeemabad area of his hometown of Nowshera.

Several political workers quit their parties and announced joining the ruling PTI on the occasion. The new entrants were welcomed to the party by presenting them the PTI caps.

National Assembly Standing Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Dr Imran Khattak, Ishaq Khan Khattak, PTI candidate for PK-63 by-election, Mian Umar Kakakhel, Shamsur Rehman Shams and Darwaish Khan Mohmand spoke on the occasion.

The federal minister said the PDM had no ability to force the PTI government out of power. “The elected parliament is there to resolve any issue,” he said while coming down hard on the PDM for staging rallies against the government even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Pervez Khattak said that the government had to postpone the rallies it was planning because of the serious situation arising out of the Covid-19 rising cases during the second wave of the viral infection. “But the PDM is bent on arranging public meetings at all costs just to save own leaders and bring Prime Minister Imran Khan under pressure to stop the accountability process launched by him to make those accountable who had plundered the national wealth,” he added.

The defence minister said that the PDM could neither get the government out of power nor could it stop the accountability process. “The opposition should quit creating anarchy in the country,” he said and asked the PDM to put off its rallies in the public interest.

Pervez Khattak criticised the opposition for insisting on holding a public meeting in Multan despite a ban and challenging the writ of the state by forcibly entering the rally venue of Qila Qasim Bagh Stadium, which had been locked down by the government.

He believed that coronavirus cases were spreading fast because of, what he felt was, irresponsible attitude of the opposition political parties, which were becoming a source of Covid-19 spread by arranging public meetings.

Elaborating on his statement, he said the rate of the coronavirus spread was 13 per cent in the past but that hiked to almost 20 per cent after the PDM public meeting at the Amn Chowk in Peshawar on the 22nd of this month.

The defence minister said no one else but the PDM leaders were responsible for the rise in the Covid-19 cases during the second wave of the viral infection.

He said Pakistan People’s Party Chairman had quarantined himself after getting infected with the virus but still, the PDM was going ahead with the protest rallies and public meetings.

Pervez Khattak believed that the PTI government successfully handled the situation when the first wave of coronavirus hit Pakistan and other parts of the world at the time even several developed countries were found helpless. “We will overcome the situation again now,” he resolved.