HYDERABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Sindh chapter president Shah Mohammad Shah has said the opposition parties are united against the present government and the newly formed Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would formally start its anti-government protests in October.

“This [federal] government is a selected one, and not and elected dispensation, and the PDM has resolved to rid people of this inept set-up,” he said, while speaking to reporters at a luncheon hosted in his honour by Khalid Arain in Latifabad on Sunday.

He said the opposition parties did not accept the government formed through rigged elections, and added that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would be given an ultimatum at a PDM representative meeting soon.

He said Pakistan stood nowhere in terms of economy since the selected government replaced the elected one. He said today poverty and unemployment reached its zenith and economy had been destroyed.

He said the PTI government had committed to provide 10 million jobs but it sacked millions instead. He said sugar thieves ruled the roost while flour disappeared from the country. He said today the masses failed to make both ends meet.

He said the PDM was formed to uphold the Constitution and ensure supremacy of parliament. He said every opposition party cherished the Constitution.

He said the PDM was being activated and rallies would be staged in every city and provincial capital, followed by a long march to rid people of the incompetent government. He said the PDM would be organised at the district level. He said that an in-house change would not offer any substantive change, and demanded fresh elections for parliament’s supremacy.

He said public meetings would be held in October and December period. The PML-N leader said Nawaz Sharif had also made it clear that Imran Khan was not an issue, but the struggle was against those who had brought him to power.

He said Nawaz Sharif’s narrative became the narrative of the most recent multiparty conference and all the participating parties had almost consensus on it. The opposition parties were untied for the country and parliament’s supremacy.

He said the selected PTI prime minister would be removed democratically.

He said that some forces had hatched a conspiracy before 2018 elections by staging the Imran Khan-led sit-in against the PML-N government to send it packing through the protest.

He avoided to answer questions about Sheikh Rashid’s recent statements.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2020