Pakistan Democratic Movement’s top leaders, including PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz, were booked on Tuesday for causing irreparable damage to a national asset after its Minar-e-Pakistan rally here, as the 11-party opposition alliance set January 31 deadline for Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down or face long march on Islamabad. The opposition alliance held its final anti-government rally in Lahore on Sunday despite a ban on the gathering of more than 300 people owing to an increase in COVID-19 cases across the country. The PDM has been holding massive rallies since its inception in September to seek Khan’s ouster and press the powerful military to stop interfering in politics.
Lahore police booked Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, former railways minister Saad Rafique and 125 others under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code for breaking the locks of Minar-e-Pakistan gates, damaging the official property and violating the COVID-19 guidelines. The FIR states that the PDM caused irreparable damage to the sanctity of a national heritage – Minar-e-Pakistan. It includes 15 counts of violations, including a violation of coronavirus standard operating procedures and the Sound System Act.
Police also registered an FIR against Mian Imran and Mian Shahid for facilitating the PDM Lahore rally on Sunday by selling 7,000 chairs. PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Auranzeb said this FIR is a proof of the success of the PDM rally in Lahore. “The FIR is a reflection of a fascist mindset of puppet prime minister Imran Khan,” she said.
The opposition parties on Monday evening signed a ‘Lahore Declaration’ during a meeting at PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s Jati Umra residence, which was attended by PDM convener Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan president Shah Owais Noorani, BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal, Awami National Party’s Mian Iftikhar and other leaders of the coalition.
“We ask the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to resign by January 31. In case the government does not step down the date of the long march will be announced on February 1. We ask the people of Pakistan to start preparations for the long march from today,” Rehman told reporters after the meeting.
“Prime Minister Khan has time till January 31 to resign from the office. He is under pressure that is why he is talking about NRO (deal). The opposition can hold talks (with the powers that be) only after dissolution of assemblies,” he said, adding that the opposition lawmakers would submit their resignations to their leadership by December 31. Terming the Lahore rally as “historic,” Rehman said it revived the memory of 1940 gathering in connection of Pakistan resolution here.
He said the PDM meeting condemned the effort to control the electronic media by the ISPR (media wing of the Pakistan military) for a negative propaganda against the rally and putting pressure on TV anchors. “We are fighting for freedom of the media. They want to make the media a personal property which we will not allow,” he said.
Maryam said the time to hold talks with the “selected (Imran) and selectors (establishment)” was over. “The selected and the selectors will have to take the back seats and now talks will be held with the people,” she said. Bilawal said the time has come for Imran Khan to go home after resigning.
The Lahore Declaration of the opposition parties says there has been unprecedented price hike, inflation, unemployment and social injustice and the selected government and its facilitators are responsible for this. “The facilitators (the military establishment) had stolen the people’s mandate in the 2018 election and imposed a ‘hybrid and inefficient’ government on the masses.” The opposition parties pledge that it will make sure that there is no interference of the institutions of “the establishment and intelligence” in politics and at the same time it will make the security institutions stronger on the professional lines. The PDM has made it clear that nothing short of fresh elections is acceptable to it.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly blamed Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and spy agency ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed for Pakistan’s current situation. Sharif, three-time former prime minister who is entangled in a number of corruption cases, has been in London since November last year after the Lahore High Court granted him permission to go abroad for four weeks for treating the heart disease and an immune system disorder.
Pakistan’s powerful Army has denied meddling in politics. Prime Minister Khan also denies that the Army helped him win the election in 2018.
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