ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of anti-government parties, has met once more after about two months of hiatus, wherein members of the opposition discussed strategies against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and how to ensure transparency within the elections.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the opposition alliance had decided to focus “all its attention and energies” on ensuring that transparent elections were held in the country. He asserted that electronic voting machine were the “simplest way to rig elections” as the alliance rejected the government’s “unilateral” electoral reforms and Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s election results.
“We believe that the public has the right to select its representatives and will not allow it to be stolen in any way. We believe that an election-thieving, selected government is imposed on the country. We reject any kind of electoral reforms and legislation (by them).”
Rehman said the PDM also believed that the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency have become “political organisations and lost their independence and objectivity” and were being used to take “political revenge” from the opposition.
Condemning the inflation within the country, the JUI-F chief said that the PTI’s “broken records of inflation, unemployment and oppression” had made life impossible for the ordinary citizen.
Fazl said the government has “bled the people dry” with historic inflation and unemployment, in its bid to meet the conditions of the International Monetary Fund.
“We reject each and every electoral reform put forward by this selected government, and we believe that NAB and FIA have become political institutions, who have lost their standing, as they are being used against the Opposition,” he said.
The PDM demands cases registered by the FIA against journalists be taken back, he said, adding that the government employs such tactics to gag the press.
“Freedom of expression has been throttled. Worst dictatorial [and] black-handed tactics have been imposed on the media. Journalists are being attacked,” he said, adding that the meeting expressed serious concern over the situation and condemned it.
He reiterated the PDM’s basic objectives which he said included ensuring that all institutions “fulfil their responsibilities while remaining within the bounds of the law and the Constitution and end their role beyond their authority”.
Speaking on Pakistan’s so-called failed foreign policy, the PDM president recalled how recently Pakistan was not allowed to present its case during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.
“PDM believes the only way forward in Afghanistan is through an inclusive political solution;. Pakistan aspires for a political and stable Afghanistan,” Fazl said.
Fazl said the PDM leaders took an in-depth review of the internal and external challenges facing Pakistan, after which, the meeting’s participants demanded that Opposition lawmakers be taken into confidence over the situation in the neighbouring war-torn country.
“An important section of the country is unaware of the situation as facts are being hidden from them,” the JUI-F chief said.
The meeting also decided that Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Sherpao will be made the senior vice-president of the alliance, he said.
To tackle the aforementioned issues, Fazl said that the PDM committee would reconvene on August 21 in Islamabad and August 28 in Karachi. Moreover, he announced that there would be a rally in the port city the day after the meeting (August 29).
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif said that his brother, Nawaz Sharif, would not return to the country without getting tested and lamented the fact that the PTI had politicised the health of three-time premier.
The PML-N president reminded everyone that several people had “stooped so low” that when Nawaz’s wife was on her death bed, they would make “absurd” comments about her health.
The PDM chief presided over the meeting, with Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mahmood Khan Achakzai in attendance.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Prof Sajid Mir, National Party Senator Mir Kabir Mohammad Shahi, JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani, Qaumi Watan Party leader Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Shah Owais Noorani also attended the meeting.
PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz attened the meeting via video link.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Wednesday that the opposition had tried everything to destabilize the democratically elected government, but is now left with only option to cooperate in the Parliament for legislating on electoral reforms to ensure free and fair elections.
In a tweet, he said the Pakistan Democratic Movement, a multi-party opposition alliance, had failed to cause any harm to the government after falling short on its towering claims of en-mass resignations, no-confidence move against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Parliament, sit-in, and long march.
The PDM was nothing more than an assembly of unemployed people, he added.
The minister said the only option left for the opposition was to legislate on electoral reforms including the use of Electronic Voting Machines in the elections and the provision of the right to vote to the overseas Pakistanis.
Similarly, Minister for State on Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wednesday said that the politics of Pakistan Democratic Movement parties has come to an end and all conspiracies against the government have failed.
Talking to a private news channel she said, all parties were united to save their corruption instead of giving positive suggestions on national issues.
The coalition of opposition parties should have been good if it was for the welfare of the masses and country, she added.
She said that opposition parties should be held accountable before the public as they have plundered the country ruthlessly during their tenure.
The state minister appreciated PTI leaders for gaining public confidence in Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir in recent elections as opposition parties were badly failed there.
She said opposition parties did not play any positive role in the Kashmir cause.
A day earlier, Leader of the Opposition and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif contacted his elder brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ahead of the meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement and sought his advice on the party’s strategy.
According to the party sources, Shehbaz Sharif held an important telephone consultation with the party leader before the important PDM meeting to be held on Wednesday.
According to the sources, during the consultation, the two leaders agreed to intensify the anti-government movement and mobilise the PDM.
Nawaz directed Shehbaz to activate the PML-N leaders at the party level as well. Shehbaz will convene an important meeting of the party leaders before the PDM meeting in the light of Nawaz’s directive.
Meanwhile, PML-N lawmaker Mian Javed Latif claimed that Nawaz will return home this year.
Speaking to the media, Javed Latif said that Nawaz did not compromise on the country’s nuclear programme despite international pressure. He said that Nawaz will not get justice from these courts.
Last week, Shehbaz said that government statements based on political hatred are against the prestige of the country.
In a statement issued on Friday, he said that statements given by the government against the facts in order to take political mileage are deplorable.
Playing politics on the life of Nawaz who remained prime minister for three times is inhuman, he remarked.
He went on to say that the government’s attitude on defaming an individual for the sake of politics is bringing a bad name for the country. They should nail senses.
Sending Nawaz to London for medical treatment was the decision of “Imran Niazi government”, he held. Treatment facilities for Nawaz were not available in Pakistan was also the decision of a government board, he added.
He underscored that the decision for treatment and stay in respect of Nawaz in London would be taken as per doctors’ advice. Nawaz will return to Pakistan when the doctors permit, he added.
An appeal has been filed to meet the legal formalities, he pointed out. Nawaz can stay in London till the decision of the appeal, he added.
On Thursday, the Home Office of the United Kingdom has rejected PML-N supreme leader and three-time prime minister Nawaz’s request for visa extension.
“The UK Home Office has excused itself from further extending Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s visa,” PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement.
The Sharif family has also decided to appeal the decision.
She said the Home Office had stated that Nawaz could file an appeal against this decision in the immigration tribunal.
“Nawaz Sharif’s lawyers have filed the appeal in the British immigration tribunal,” Marriyum added.
She said the Home Office’s order would remain “without effect” until a decision on the appeal, and that “Nawaz Sharif can reside in the UK legally until the appeal is decided.”
Nawaz has been living in London since November 2019 after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment.
In December last year, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar had told a press conference that Pakistan had written a letter to the UK for the cancellation of Nawaz’s visa, which was issued for medical treatment after taking an undertaking. The six-month visa had not been extended by the UK, he had said at the time, adding that negotiations were continuing with the UK for the deportation of Nawaz.
with additional input from APP
