ISLAMABAD: Opposi­tion’s Rehbar Committee has decided to give a “formal structural shape” to the newly-formed alliance of 11 parties which was announced at the Sept 20 multiparty conference (MPC) with the name of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) by constituting its chapters at the national, provincial and district levels to launch an organised anti-government campaign.

This was disclosed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Secretary General Nayyar Bokhari during a brief chat with reporters after attending the meeting of the Rehbar Committee here on Wednesday.

This was first meeting of the Rehbar Committee after the MPC.

Mr Bokhari said that the decision to nominate office-bearers of the PDM at all levels had been left to the top leadership of the parties. He said the members of the Rehbar Committee would request the party heads to make decisions in this regard as early as possible.

Mr Bokhari said the Rehbar Committee had met in the light of the 26-point declaration announced by the opposition parties at the PPP-hosted MPC in Islamabad.

The PPP leader said all decisions taken at the PDM would be implemented and opposition parties would soon announce a schedule for its countrywide public meetings. He said the opposition was determined to hold a decisive long march on Islamabad in January 2021 as announced in the MPC, adding that they were determined to send this government packing.

After the MPC, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had welcomed the formation of the PDM and likened it to the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), the two major opposition alliances formed under the leadership of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan to launch movements against military regimes of Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2020