Daily Times

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will start its countrywide anti-government protests from Wednesday (today), following the skyrocketing hike in petroleum products and electricity causing high inflation.

Earlier on Tuesday, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif held a high-level meeting of the party to prepare the schedule for protests and rallies against the PTI-led government.

The PML-N will hold its first protest jalsa in Rawalpindi today, with Shahbaz Sharif asking workers and leaders of the party at the district and provincial level to join the protests.

On the other hand, local PDM leaders have organized a meeting of the party at 2 pm in Islamabad, where the dates and venues for the Islamabad protests will be finalised.

Ineffective Opposition

The government, however, has denounced PDM over the last couple of days, with Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed saying that the Prime Minister is fortunate as he has to deal with an ineffective Opposition.

He had maintained that the government was not afraid of the Opposition at all because “it is spineless”.

“In fact, Prime Minister Imran Khan is lucky that he got such a worthless Opposition,” the interior minister added.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Rasheed had also responded to the Opposition’s criticism of the PTI-led government due to the rising inflation in the country and said that the situation arose due to the policies of the previous governments as well as the coronavirus situation in the country.

While talking about the PDM, Rasheed had said that the movement has turned into a “dead entity”.

“This worthless Opposition has not been able to make any decision so far,” he had said, adding that the PDM had planned to oust the government last December but almost one year on, it is still planning to oust it without taking any practical actions.

“This is how politics work in this country. Every Opposition claims that the government will be ousted soon,” he had said.