LAHORE/GUJRAT: Showing signs of panic, the government has begun taking traditional steps to check the opposition from holding a major show in Gujranwala scheduled for Friday.

As the 11-party opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement, particularly PML-N, is mobilising its cadres across the province, reports received from various districts suggest that the administration is threatening transporters with dire consequences if they rent out their vehicles for hauling political activists to Gujranwala.

Some businessmen associated with cargo transportation services allege that authorities have begun confiscating their containers, seemingly for using them to block roads leading to the town the opposition has chosen for its maiden anti-government public meeting.

Printers particularly from Gujranwala region claim that they have been warned against printing banners, pena-flex and hoardings for the opposition rally.

PML-N and PPP also allege that police are continuing raids on houses of their respective active workers to detain them in a bid to scare away others planning to attend the Oct 16 public meeting.

Maryam Nawaz will be the main leader of the PML-N who will lead a rally from Lahore, while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will come to Gujranwala in a procession from Lalamusa.

Maryam Nawaz chaired a volunteer force meeting in Lahore on Tuesday to discuss various strategies for overcoming the obstructions likely to be put up by the government to spoil the public meeting.

A PDM meeting held in Gujranwala on Tuesday to review preparations for the public meeting analysed the ‘hurdles’ being created by the government and mulled strategies to counter the same. PMLN Punjab President Rana Sanaullah, PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith head Prof Sajid Mir and others attended the meeting, which pledged to thwart the government’s tactics. Addressing the press conference in Gujranwala, Rana Sanaullah, Khurram Dastgeer Khan, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Chaudhary Manzoor alleged that the on the one hand the prime minister Imran Khan and his government had said that there was complete freedom for opposition to hold public meetings but at the same time subordinate administration of the government had not yet granted permission to hold the public meeting in the Gujranwala Stadium besides creating hurdles through various tactics to disturb the PDM rally.

They said the PDM had also chalked out its alternate strategy to counter the use of state machinery and in case the government blocked the roads, every road, city and district of Punjab would turn into a public meeting as the PDM had a complete backing of masses utterly disappointed with the performance of PTI government.

Rana Sanaullah said that the government had so far not been clear on whether it could bear the weight of this PDM public meeting. He said the PTI had held hundreds of public meetings in across the country between 2014 to 2018 but the government of the same party was not ready to allow its opposition to exercise its democratic right.

Qamar Kaira said that the peaceful movement of PDM was very much within the constitution and law of Pakistan but administration and police should not become the personal slave of rulers. He said the PDM’s struggle was aimed at holding a free and fair election, ending the interference of institution into the politics and rule of law....

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2020