LOWER DIR: Former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party senior leader Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday claimed the people wanted to get rid of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government over its failed policies.

He was talking to journalists after attending a meeting of the party’s politicians at the Chakdara Fishing Hut here.

The PPP provincial president Humayun Khan, general secretary Faisal Karim Kundi, former federal minister Najmuddin Khan and former provincial minister Bakht Baidar Khan were also present.

The former premier visited the area to review party’s arrangements for the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Nov 22 Peshawar rally.

Mr Ashraf announced that party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would lead a big procession of the PPP Malakand division workers from Batkhela to attend the Peshawar rally. He said the Peshawar rally would prove an obvious referendum against the government.

The PPP stalwart said the previous three PDM rallies at Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta had shocked the government as those were beyond the expectations of the rulers.

He claimed the PDM represented the 220 million people of Pakistan, adding all pledges made by the PTI leadership with the masses had proved a joke.

The former premier said the PPP respected and regarded the army as an institution.

He said the PPP lawmakers won’t hesitate to resign from the parliament if all other options for ousting the rulers failed.

JI RALLY: Jamaat-i-Islami district emir Izazul Mulk Afkari on Friday said his party would organise a rally against the government for its failure to control price hike and unemployment at Timergara on Nov 29.

He said the JI chief Sirajul Haq and other party leaders would address the rally.

Addressing a meeting of the JI youth wing at Ahyaul Uloom Balambat, he said millions of educated youth were finding it hard to get a suitable job to support their families financially.

ELECTROCUTED: A man identified as Tahirullah, a resident of Gadar Chakdara, was electrocuted when he accidently touched a high transmission line, residents said.

They said Tahir was working on roof of his house at Gadar when he accidently touched the power line. He was taken to the THQ hospital, Chakdara, but did not survive.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2020