GUJRAT: Two main parties forming the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the PML-N and PPP, have kicked off joint corner meetings across Gujranwala region to woo their party workers ahead of the opposition alliance’s maiden rally scheduled to be held at Jinnah Cricket Stadium in Gujranwala on Oct 16.

The first major joint meeting was held in Sarai Alamgir city on Friday, which was attended by PML-N Gujranwala division President MNA Abid Raza Kotla as well as the local cadre of both parties.

Another meeting of the Gujrat district chapters of PML-N, PPP and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was held at the Nawabzada house during which a joint strategy was formulated to attract maximum people for the rally.

All the PML-N lawmakers and ticket-holders across Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad and Narowal district of Gujranwala division have been holding corner meetings either at the city/town or union council level. This is because the PPP and JUI-F did not have any National or provincial assembly seats in the division.

However, the PPP has a major support base in Gujranwala region, mostly in Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts, which is why the PDM selected Gujranwala for its maiden rally. The JUI-F and Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith of Prof Sajid Mir also have pockets of workers in the region, particularly in and around Gujranwala city.

Individual and joint corner meetings have also been planned for Jalalpur Jattan, Lalamusa, Dinga, Kotla Arab Ali Khan and Kharian towns of Gujrat district in the next couple of days whereas individual corner meetings have already been held in the major parts of Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal.

Wazirabad town of Gujranwala is already buzzing with political activity owing to the by-poll campaign for the Punjab Assembly seat PP-51 that fell vacant after the demise of PML-N MPA Shaukat Manzoor Cheema in June.

Wazirabad was once a stronghold of the PPP, but after 2008 it had turned into a PML-N bastion and the party has been winning all the NA and PA seats from there since then.

MNA Kolta told Dawn that the law enforcement agencies were harassing the PDM workers, particularly of the PML-N in Gujranwala, to keep them from preparing for the Oct 16 rally. But such tactics would not deter democratic forces from waging a struggle against the undemocratically elected rulers who had only brought chaos to the country through bad governance, poor economy and price hike.

He alleged the government had changed the entire hierarchy of the Gujranwala police, including the city police officer, senior superintendent of police (operations), Saddar superintendent of police and others, to mount pressure on the incumbents to get results according to their wishes.

But the administrative officers should keep in their minds that they were public servants.

The MNA said the government seemed confused about how to handle the PDM’s Gujranwala rally and the pressure tactics to threaten the PML-N workers would prove counterproductive.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020