Daily Times

The public meeting and rally of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) scheduled in Lahore will be a referendum against this ‘puppet’ government, it was stated by the PDM leaders after a meeting of 11-party alliance held at PML-N’s secretariat in Model Town Lahore on Wednesday. The provincial leadership of PDM including central leadership of PML-N that is the host of Lahore’s show had detailed deliberations regarding the public meeting scheduled at Minar-e-Pakistan on December 13. It was attended by PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal, Kh Saad Rafique, Rana Sanaullah, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Maryam Aurangzeb, Azma Bukhari while Chaudhry Manzoor of PPP and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F were also present on the occasion.

Briefing the media after the meeting, PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah said that the PDM jalsa will be held in Lahore at any cost on December 13. “The people from whole country will come out that day and it will be decided how Pakistan will be taken forward,” he said. He was of the view that the future of Pakistan is associated with democracy and transparent elections. He further added that the Lahore Jalsa of PDM will be huge enough that it will be quoted as a precedent in the future. All the PDM parties will participate in the rally with full zeal, he added. According to Rana Sana, those who are backing this government will have to admit the public opinion.

The PDM leaders showed satisfaction over the arrangements made so far for the rally. The next meeting of PDM will be hosted by PPP on December 7 to review the arrangements for Lahore’s rally.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F said that the united opposition is unanimous over a point from the day one that it is not an elected government but a ‘selected’ one. “The incompetency of the government is exposed now as millions of people lost their jobs since the PTI was brought into power,” said the JUI-F leader. He was of the view that the government is heading towards the clash with the opposition as evident from the Multan jalsa where political workers faced the brutality of the police. He further added that such brutal attitude was not seen even during the dictatorship. We’ll record our protest according to the constitution, he added.

Chaudhry Manzoor of PPP said that all the parties of PDM are preparing for Lahore jalsa with full strength. Criticizing the government, PPP leader said that it is anti-people government where farmers were beaten in day light and a Professor Ammar Ali Jan was also arrested. The protest of PDM is just because of the issues being faced by the public as more than four thousand employees of Pakistan Steel Mill were fired just recently, said Ch Manzoor.

It is worth mentioning here that the district administration of Lahore hasn’t granted permission to PDM to hold jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan. The application of PML-N was turned down by the DC Lahore citing the reason that the site of the scheduled rally is a national heritage and therefore it cannot be allowed to hold such activities there.

Meanwhile, a petition was also filed in the Lahore High Court on Wednesday demanding ban on holding PDM rally in Lahore. Filed by advocate Nadeem Sarwar, the petitioner said that the LHC should impose ban on PDM Lahore rally because health emergency is in place and the Covid-19 is at its peak.