Staff Report
Islamabad: The opposition leaders under the banner of PDM organized its sixth rally at Minar-i-Pakistan venue at Lahore. The PDM leaders blasted over the current government’s policies while the call for March towards Islamabad was repeated by most of the speakers at the rally. The sixth public meeting, which the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is calling a “historic and decisive” power show, is underway in Lahore’s Minar-i-Pakistan. On their arrival at the venue, PDM leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari along with others were greeted by enthusiastic supporters who had gathered at Minar-i-Pakistan during the day.
This is the first time in the recent history of the country that the PML-N is holding a public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan, the first rally at this venue for PML-N Vice President Maryam.
Similarly, it is PPP Chairperson Bilawal’s first appearance at a political gathering at Minar-i-Pakistan. His late mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, held a historic public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan in 1986.
PML-N Vice President Maryam thanked Lahore’s residents for attending the public meeting in overwhelming numbers. Without naming the prime minister, Maryam said that someone had “challenged PDM in Pharoah’s tone” to gather enough people to fill up Minar-i-Pakistan’s grounds, adding that today, participants of the public meeting had filled up adjoining streets as well.
Referring to a gathering held by the PTI at Minar-i-Pakistan in 2011, Maryam alleged that the public meeting had been arranged by former ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
Maryam also spoke about the Panama Papers case and alleged that former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa had told the incumbent prime minister to file an application “after which you (Imran) ousted Nawaz Sharif on the basis of an iqama through a fixed match”.
The PML-N vice president also questioned PM Imran’s offer for dialogue through the Parliament, asking who was behind the operations of the House. The incumbent premier will have to go, Maryam said, because he had ruined the country’s economy and had “lied to the people every day”. She said Lahore welcomed Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan as a “real brother”.
“No one is big or small, we are all equal,” Maryam declared. She said that for the past three years, the prime minister whom she referred to as ‘Tabedar (obedient) Khan’ had been saying that he will not grant an NRO. Maryam insisted that today, the prime minister was seeking an NRO from Nawaz Sharif and the people.
She urged the people to wear masks because “I value and care for your life” but said that it was important to attend public meetings because Covid-18 was “more lethal than Covid-19”.
The former prime minister’s daughter expressed grief that seven patients in Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital had died due to shortage in oxygen supply and question the PTI government’s performance in the health sector.
PPP chief Bilawal, in his address, recalled that his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had founded the party in Punjab. PPP workers in Lahore, Bilawal said, went through torture but continued to support democracy. He said that the country was suffering because of the “fake, incompetent and illegitimate government”.
“Punjab’s pag is on the head of the puppet of a puppet. Is this acceptable to Punjab?” he asked, adding that he neither accepted the prime minister nor his chief minister. He insisted that the PDM’s “war is not for power but for the rights” of the people. The PPP chief said that non-democratic forces termed as the establishment, which he refers to as the selectors, “have been conspiring against you (public) and have been forming governments of their choice”.
“Selectors, listen clearly, you will have to listen to the public’s voice, you will have to accept their decision […] the time for dialogue is gone, now there will be a long march,” said a charged Bilawal. “Stop making phone calls, stop trying to establish contacts. No differences can be created between us, we will reach Islamabad and chase your puppet out. Once he is gone, then there can be dialogue,” said Bilawal.