FAISALABAD: Leaders of the two main constituent parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) claim that the alliance’s “unprecedented gathering” in Lahore on Dec 13 will be decisive and send the government packing.

In Faisalabad, addressing a PML-N workers convention on Friday night, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the PDM movement was not a struggle for power, but for solving the problems the country was facing and improving the future of the people.

He said the only solution to the problems was sending this government home. Price hike and Prime Minister Imran Khan were “gifts from the last general elections”, he said, adding that the prices of flour, sugar electricity, gas and medicines had sky rocketed.

Mr Abbasi said the PDM and PML-N had no personal differences with anyone but with those violating the constitution and law. He said people needed a government that could provide them employment, reduce inflation and move the country on the path of development. The reason for these difficulties was that people’s mandate was stolen in the 2018 elections.

PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said due to the policies of this government, industrialists were getting richer and farmers and labourers poorer. The “selected government” would go home on Dec 13 after the PDM’s gathering in Lahore and the PML-N come into power, he claimed.

He claimed that due to the failed foreign policy of the government, Pakistan had become isolated in the world and Kashmir served to India on a plate.

Workers waved party flags and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Imran Khan. Former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that over Rs2.5 trillion had been snatched from the people this year due to inflation. He said Mr Abbasi had openly challenged the government to hold his trial in front of people, but the government was hesitating. “We will go to Lahore in the form of a procession and a rally will be held wherever the procession is stopped,” he remarked.

LAHORE: Meanwhile in Lahore, PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira stressed the PDM meeting here on Dec 13 will see a massive crowd that will be joined by workers from across the province.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, he chided Prime Minister Khan for saying that his political rivals had become a sign of God’s wrath. Referring to the premier’s recent visit to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, he said Mr Khan went to meet those whom he had been calling looters and plunderers of national wealth. He challenged the prime minister to fulfil his promise of controlling price hike and making medicines affordable for the poor.

Referring to the government’s statements about banning political gatherings, Mr Kaira said hotels, restaurants, transport, markets and shops were open but the rulers wanted to restrict political activities at the behest of the selectors.

He said his party demanded the country be run in accordance with the law, institutions work within their constitutional bounds and the masses elect their representatives with their free will.

Responding to a query, the PPP leader said that all political parties and institutions should sit together for a dialogue on improving the governance and then running the country accordingly.

He told a questioner that the 11-party PDM leadership would decide after Dec 13 the next phase of protest – whether to march on Islamabad or go for another mode of protest.

He said the words Imran Khan and his cronies were using against their political rivals were adding fuel to the fire between the government and opposition.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2020