GUJRAT: The PML-N has announced that the opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), will hold its maiden rally on Oct 16 along the main GT road near the city flyover if the government did not allow it at Jinnah Stadium, Gujranwala.

Speaking to party officials, lawmakers and ticket holders from across Gujranwala division at a workers convention in Gujranwala on Saturday, senior PML-N leaders Senator Pervaiz Rahseed, Punjab President Rana Sanaullah, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Daniyal Aziz, Khwaja Imran Nazeer, Saira Afzal Tarrar and others said the senior party leadership and lawmakers would lead the rally from the front and the workers and supporters remain behind them.

Rana Sanaullah said that waging a struggle against the failed policies of the government had become a national duty of all political forces of the country as Pakistan was passing through its darkest times due to the poor economic conditions, bad governance, politicalvictimisation, and failed foreign policy that hadcausedresentment among the friendly countries of Pakistan.

He said that keeping in view this situation, the government’s ouster with the help of the masses has become inevitable and any political party showing flexibility towards the anti-government stance could invite the wrath of the public that has been suffering at the hands of incompetent rulers.

Sanaullah added that the opposition was not scared of arrests, as it was already facing a targeted accountability, and despite keeping Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz in jail, the government and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) could not prove a single charge of corruption against them.

Senator Rasheed said the NAB was acting as a silent spectator to the alleged corruption charges levelled against retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa as well as the scandals of medicines, sugar, flour etc, and only targeting the PML-N leadership.

The party leadership also asked the officials and lawmakers to hold corner meetings to gain maximum public support and bring the masses to the Gujranwala rally. The convention was told that MNA Khurram Dastgir had held a meeting with the Gujranwala deputy commissioner (DC) on Saturday about the party’s application for permission to hold the PDM rally at the stadium.

However, according to the organisers, the DC told them he would get back to them with the government’s decision within 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020