ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has decided to launch country-wide protests, as well as a long march towards Islamabad against the government’s “anti-people” measures and “rising inflation”.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the anti-government alliance in Islamabad on Saturday, according to a statement issued by PML-N leader and the alliance’s secretary-general Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith (MJAH) president Senator Prof Sajid Mir, and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai had joined the meeting via video link.
The meeting mulled the overall political situation, inflation, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance, besides other issues. The participants deliberated upon the PDM’s future course of action against the incumbent government over the ever-rising inflation.
“A protest will be held in Karachi on November 13, followed by one in Quetta on November 17 and in Peshawar on November 20,” Abbasi said, adding that the last rally would be taken out in Lahore, from where protesters would march towards the federal capital.
“This movement will end only after sending Prime Minister Imran Khan packing,” the statement said, adding, “This is a movement to rid the country of Imran Khan.”
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in the statement, said the PDM rejected the increase in the prices of electricity, gas, petrol, wheat flour, ghee, sugar, medicines and other essential commodities.
The PDM demanded that the increase in the prices of electricity, gas, petrol and other commodities be reversed. “The actual reason behind inflation is the historic corruption by Imran Khan’s government,” the statement said.
The participants of the meeting demanded that the agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund be made public and resolved to launch a “decisive movement against the government’s anti-people policies”.
Abbasi further said the PDM had also rejected the National Accountability Ordinance, election reforms, electronic voting machines, i-voting, deeming that they were based on mala fide intention.
“This forum considers government measures on non-democratic, so-called electoral reforms a bigger fraud than the 2018 election fraud,” he said, adding, “This is a conspiracy to deny the people their right to vote and steal the election.”
The PDM’s announcement of protests against inflation comes as the government continues to face severe criticism by the opposition over the soaring prices of various commodities in the country.
