PDM stages anti-govt rallies across KP

PESHAWAR: The activities of different component parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Friday staged demonstrations across the province against the government for registering cases against the opposition leaders.

PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman had given the call for the protest demonstration. In the provincial capital, the rally started from Firdaus after the Friday prayers.

Led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) district president Maulana Maskeen Shah, spokesman for PDM coordination committee Abdul Jalil Jan, former member provincial assembly Khalid Waqar Chamkani, Daud Barki of Pakistan People’s Party, Malik Saleem of Qaumi Watan Party, Zakir Shah of Jamiat Ahle Hadees and others, the protesters were holding banner and placards inscribed with anti-government slogans.

The protest rally after passing through the main GT road reached Hashtnagri Chowk, where it was converted into a big public gathering.

The speakers on the occasion blasted the government for using various tactics to weaken the PDM campaign against the government. The said that the big gatherings arranged by the movement in different parts of the country had frightened the rulers.

“The historic gathering in Multan has intensified the embarrassment of the rulers who have now resorted to use the meanest tactics,” said Abdul Jalil Jan.

The registration of FIRs and arrests of the workers of opposition parties in Punjab were the aftershocks of the Multan and Peshawar gatherings, they said.

The opposition leaders said that the government through such mean tactics would not be able to stop the PDM from holding a big power show in Lahore. “The days of the government are numbered. The Lahore gathering would prove the final nail in the coffin of the government,” said another speaker.

After the Lahore gathering, the PDM leaders would decide to launch a decisive march towards Islamabad to oust the illegal rulers from the corridors of power, the PDM leaders said.

They said that the current government had come into power as a result of the stolen mandate. Even after coming into power in an illegal manner, the rulers miserably failed to deliver. The rulers could not fulfill any of the promises they had made with the people, they said.

Soaring prices of daily items, joblessness, gas and power outages have made the lives of the people miserable. Records of corruption have also been broken during the rule of this so-called “honest” rulers, the PDM leaders said.

Meanwhile, the alliance of 11 political parties staged a protest rally in Karak city against the arrest of the PDM workers in Multan and claimed that the government had got scared from the opposition parties’ movement.

The protest rally, led by PDM district president Maulana Mirzaqeem, marched from Peer Odeen Shah Masjid and converged into a public meeting at Saddam Chowk.

The protestors blocked the Karak-Bannu road at Saddam Chowk for traffic. On the occasion, the speakers argued that PTI was itself a product of protest sit-ins and they have no right to ban the public agitation of the opposition parties.

The rallies were taken out in all the district headquarters to condemn registration of cases against leaders of opposition parties.

A similar protest was staged by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F and Qaumi Watan Party at Farooq Azam Chowk in Charsadda.

JUI-F District Amir Maulana Syed Gohar Shah and other party leaders along with QWP’s Qaiser Jamal Hashtnagry and his other colleagues took part in the protest. The speakers said that the government was hiding behind coronavirus as it has failed to solve problems of the people. They said that they would render every sacrifice on the call of the PDM leaders.

They alleged that the incumbent government was framing domestic and foreign policies on the directives of the western powers, adding that PDM activists would oppose such policies.