Bilawal visits Maryam: No to talks with govt, establishment

By News Desk

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz said on Friday that the time for talks with the establishment and government had already lapsed.

They said they wanted the establishment to stop interference in politics and end its support to, what they called, the illegitimate government, asking Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign from his office voluntarily.

They were addressing a joint press conference at the Sharif family residence Jati Umra after holding a meeting to finalise a strategy for the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) upcoming public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan on Dec 13.

The PML-N and PPP leaders also discussed possible obstacles by the government and the future strategy. Sources said the meeting also discussed the issue of resignations, but the deadlock persisted and no final decision was made.

Bilawal said that instead of resignations, they should also consider other options, sources said. During the meeting, Bilawal strongly condemned registration of cases against political leaders and activists. He said all parties in the PDM were political parties, and they would not want to create such a situation that could benefit a “third force”.

Other PPP leaders accompanying him during the visit were former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Sherry Rehman and Qamar Zaman Kaira.

Maryam Nawaz, along with PML-N central leaders, welcomed them at the gate.

Bilawal and the PPP leaders offered condolences over the death of Maryam’s grandmother and later discussed the political situation.

Bilawal told the press conference a historic Jalsa would take place in Lahore on Dec 13 and the PDM would send a strong message to Islamabad.

“Just like Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Gujranwala, Lahore will also send a strong message to Islamabad, proving that the puppet prime minister stands alone,” he said.

He claimed that the people of Pakistan were following the PDM movement to benefit the democratic forces. He said that will give a strong message to the government, and its ‘facilitators’ should know that they will not be able to stand between the masses and their aspirations for long.

“We believe that the PDM’s first phase has been successful and after December 13, we will enter the second phase. And all of you will see that this government will pack its bags itself,” he added.

To a question about the resignations, Bilawal said he would take up the matter with his party’s Central Executive Committee after which a final decision will be made.

Maryam thanked Bilawal for inquiring about PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s health and expressing his condolences over the death of her grandmother Shamim Akhtar.

“We ate together and spoke on several matters of PDM and the upcoming Jalsa,” Maryam said, adding the Lahore Jalsa would be a game-changer after which the selected government would be sent packing.

Slamming the government, Maryam said the government now wanted to hold a dialogue when they realised that their government was slipping out of their hands. She said now PDM would not hold any dialogue with them.

She said the selected government would have to go home now as the lives of common man had become hell due to increase in the prices of daily-use food items, electricity, gas, unemployment, etc. She, once again, invited people of Lahore to reach Minar-e-Pakistan on Dec 13, with their families and friends to end the rule of corrupt and incompetent people.

Separately, Maryam Nawaz said Lahore’s Jalsa on Dec 13 would decide the fate of the country in which the people would tell the fake rulers that the dark night of oppression was about to end.

In her video statement released on the social media on Friday as part of the mass mobilisation campaign, Maryam said the PDM would make history on Dec 13 at Minar-e-Pakistan where once the people who stood for truth together passed the resolution of Pakistan.

Regretting food inflation in the country, she said flour price had reached Rs90 per kg, sugar above Rs100, gas and electricity cost had increased twice the rate.

She said the Jalsa would be against the Kashmir deal, against the sick and paralysed system of hospitals, against expensive medicines and repression.

She said people would have to decide against false cases, against the suspension of student scholarships, against the violation of the Constitution and Parliament, against the ban on expression and freedom of speech and against the theft of votes.

“Get out of your houses to show the rulers your decision with your voice and full participation,” she urged adding “tell them that the night of oppression is over.” I invite all my brothers, sisters, elders, sons and daughters to reach Minar-e-Pakistan on Dec 13, 2020, she concluded.

Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said the threat of en mass parliamentary resignations hurled by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders was nothing but a political stunt, which was bound to fail like their previous attempts for getting an ‘NRO’ for their corruption cases.

“It is a known fact that they [opposition alliance] are different parties and have different directions. And those who move in different directions can never have a single destination,” he said while addressing a news conference flanked by Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur.

Shibli Faraz said if the opposition parties were serious to quit the assemblies en bloc then they should do it in an appropriate manner instead of making mere assertions. “It is their last tactic, which will fail like the past ones,” he said.

He said after the Financial Action Task Force-related legislation, the 11-parties alliance got convinced that the present government would never give them any National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)-like concession and the all of a sudden started making noise about alleged rigging in the last general election.

They started gathering mobs and holding public meetings, besides uttering abusive language to create an environment to pressurise the government for fulfillment of their personal agenda, he added.

The minister said the opposition parties had nothing to do with the common man’s welfare as they were following the single agenda of getting the NRO for their corruption, while putting the public lives at risk amid the increasing intensity of the deadly second wave of coronavirus.

To a question, Shibli Faraz categorically denied of contacting the PDM leadership for any formal talks.

He, however, maintained that the government could have talks with the opposition for discussing political issues and not personal ones like corruption cases.

Any impression regarding contacts with the opposition was totally false, he added.

On the other hand, he said, some opposition parliamentarians, who were being compelled by non-elected persons like Maryam Safdar to tender resignations, were in contact with the government.

Shibli Faraz said some parties in the unnatural alliance were looking for a way out, as they realised PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman with his so-called ‘religious cloak’ had led them to a blind alley.

The government could help them to come out of the ‘quagmire’, but without giving any NRO to escape from the accountability process for their corruption, he added.

The PDM, he said, would cancel its Lahore gathering if the government agreed to their only one demand of amending the National Accountability Bureau’s laws at the eleventh hour.

To a query, he made it clear that no secret talks would be held with the opposition.

“We are an elected government and will make public the terms of reference of any negotiation with the opposition,” he added.

The minister said at present the country was facing two epidemics, one was the second wave of coronavirus and the other was the PDM.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre’s data, the corona situation in major cities like Peshawar turned the worst after the PDM’s public gatherings.

Terming the 11-party alliance a ‘band of irresponsible political parties’, he said around 60 percent health equipment in almost every hospital was occupied, while the situation might deteriorate further due to rising corona patients in the wake of declining mercury.

The Lahore city, he feared, would face the same fate as the opposition was adamant to hold the ‘Jalsa’ despite clear restrictions from the government on public and social gatherings, weddings, and other activities in the larger public interest.

“It is not a joke,” the minister said, warning that legal action would be taken against the facilitators and political leaders, instigating people for violating the anti-COVID standard operating procedures for the sake of their own personal gains.

He said the government was informing the public regularly about the evolving situation as the second wave of the coronavirus was intensifying.

The minister said ironically PDM was mainly the alliance three characters - Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose politics was based on ‘lies and deceit’.

All of them, he said, were kings of corruption and ‘certified liars’ as they plundered the national wealth with impunity while being in government offices.

They had promoted the culture of corruption, horse-trading and hypocrisy in the national politics, and even introduced new ways of laundering money abroad, he added.

For being out of power for the last two years, they had now got frustrated and started talking of ‘now or never’ as their only option, he added.

He appealed to the PDM leaders to cancel their political gatherings for the next three months to ensure people’s safety amid the second wave of coronavirus, which would also help the economy get stabilised due to the prudent policies of the government