ISLAMABAD: In a rare display of unity, all opposition parties in the parliament on Tuesday agreed to observe Friday as the day of mourning and protest over the deaths caused by heatwave and the ongoing loadshedding in the country, but planning to hold separate demonstrations.

The decision to observe the protest and the day of mourning was taken by representatives of opposition parties at a meeting held in the chamber of Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah in the Parliament House on Tuesday.

Those who attended the meeting included Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Dr Arif Alvi of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Abdul Rashid Godil of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of Awami National Party (ANP), Aftab Sherpao of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Sheikh Rashid Ahmed of Awami Muslim League (AML) and Sahibzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).

Friday to be observed as day of mourning over deaths by heatwave

Talking to Dawn, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that all the parties had decided to chalk out their separate programmes to hold protest demonstrations against the “incompetence and mismanagement of the government”.

Mr Qureshi said the PTI would hold protest rallies outside press clubs throughout the country.

Dr Arif Alvi, when contacted, said that his party had given the call to hold peaceful protests. However, he said, the people were very angry over government’s failure to supply them uninterrupted power supply during the holy month of Ramazan.

Dr Alvi criticised the federal as well as provincial governments for their alleged failure to provide before time information to the people about the killer heat wave.

He was of the view that the number of deaths could have been reduced had the government launched an awareness campaign about precautionary measures which could apprise people how to save themselves from the effects of heat wave.

Abdul Rashid Godil, when contacted, said his party was organising protest demonstrations in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpur and some other parts of interior Sindh on Friday. He said the opposition parties had decided to observe the protest day on one day and to organise programmes in their respective strongholds. He said the PTI would be holding rallies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PPP in the interior of Sindh, and the ANP and the JI would be holding rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

When asked on one hand the MQM blamed the PPP’s provincial government in Sindh for the deaths by heat wave in Karachi and on the other hand it was holding protests together with the PPP, Mr Godil said they were observing a day of mourning over the loss of lives without political considerations.

Talking to a group of reporters after the meeting, Khurshid Shah held the federal government responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people throughout the country due to power breakdowns.

“Killing of over 450 people in Karachi due to non-availability of electricity is a major catastrophe. The federal government is responsible for the killing of people in Sindh and other parts of the country by not providing them electricity in the scorching heat,” he added.

Mr Shah said there was no one today to take suo motu action on major issues.

He criticised the government for passing the federal budget in the National Assembly in the absence of opposition members. He said the PML-N government had refreshed the memories of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s rule by bulldozing the federal budget.

Replying to a question, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have met PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and talked to him to strengthen democracy in the country.

It may be recalled here that the prime minister had refused to meet the PPP co-chairman last week after the latter’s outburst against army.

Mr Shah said that opposition members had decided to participate in the National Assembly session on Wednesday that had been extended only to discuss the issue of deaths caused by the heatwave and due to the ongoing power outages.

Meanwhile, Acting President and Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani in a statement on Tuesday urged the federal government to seriously look into the issue of loadshedding keeping in view the unfolding human tragedy.

Mr Rabbani asked the K-Electric to focus on providing uninterrupted electric supply to poorer neighbourhoods of Karachi where power breakdowns had caused shortage of water.

Expressing deep grief and sorrow over deaths by heatwave that struck Karachi and other parts of Pakistan, he called for finding an “out-of-the-box solution” to deal with power supply to ameliorate conditions caused by the natural calamity.

Mr Rabbani urged all the provincial governments, particularly in Sindh, to provide maximum medical facilities in hospitals and create awareness among the masses about precautionary measures.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015

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