PDM announces plan for march on Pakistan Day

Published December 7, 2021
ISLAMABAD: Maulana Fazlur Rehman along with other leaders of the PDM speaks to reporters after a meeting of the opposition parties’ alliance on Monday.—Tanveer Shahzad / White Star
ISLAMABAD: Maulana Fazlur Rehman along with other leaders of the PDM speaks to reporters after a meeting of the opposition parties’ alliance on Monday.—Tanveer Shahzad / White Star

ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be an action replay of last year, the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Monday announced that it would hold a march to Islamabad against price hike in the country on the Pakistan Day on March 23.

The decision was announced by PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman while briefing reporters after presiding over a meeting of the heads of the component parties, which was also attended by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif via video link.

Despite repeated questions by reporters, Maulana Fazl refused to tell whether their protest march would be a one-day event or it would be converted into an indefinite sit-in. “You have heard the date of 23rd March. See what happens next,” said the Maulana in response to a question during his brief press conference which was not attended by any of the PML-N leaders.

Differences persist on issues of resignations, converting rally into sit-in; minister lashes out at Maulana Fazl over date for protest rally

Interestingly, unlike the past, the Maulana did not use the term “long march” and instead called it a ‘mehangai march’ (march against price hike).

Maulana Fazl, who is also chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), said the meeting had also discussed the option of submitting en masse resignations from the legislatures, but added that its timing would be announced later.

“The issue of resignations from the assemblies came under discussion. There is a consensus in principle [on the issue]. However, we will ourselves decide as to when should we use this [resignation] card. We will decide about it when the time will come and with our own consent,” he declared.

Another “big decision” taken by the opposition leaders in their much-anticipated meeting was that the PDM would organise a seminar on the issue of price hike, growing poverty and unemployment in the country for which it would extend invitations to the lawyers’ bodies and civil society. The Maulana did not announce any date for the seminar and said the PDM’s steering committee would meet on Tuesday (today) to finalise its strategy in line with the decisions taken at the meeting.

When asked about the selection of the date for the march, the PDM chief said it would be a republic day and they had the right to raise issues of the public on the day.

It was the fourth meeting of the heads of the component parties in two months, besides a number of meetings of its steering committee, with the agenda of finalising the plan to launch, what they always use to say, a decisive and final phase of the anti-government protest that would culminate with a long march towards Islamabad.

It may be recalled that the PDM had also announced in January that it would hold a “decisive” long march to Islamabad on March 26 this year, but it had to cancel the plan just two weeks before the announced date when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) objected to the Maulana Fazl’s decision to link the en masse resignations from the assemblies with the proposed long march.

Later, the alliance was formally broken up when the PPP nominated Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as the opposition leader in the Senate in violation of the decision of the PDM which had decided that the office would go to the PML-N.

Sources in the opposition parties told Dawn that there were differences among the parties, mainly between the two major components of the PDM — JUI-F and the PML-N — over the issues of en masse resignations from parliament and converting the long march into an indefinite sit-in.

Besides this, the two parties also had different viewpoints on the issue of boycotting the upcoming local government elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the JUI-F chief announced on Monday that they would participate in the upcoming local government elections.

The sources said Maulana Fazl believed that they should start their long march after submitting resignations from parliament, whereas the PML-N was against the idea, saying that such a move would prove futile if collective resignations do not come from all the opposition parties, including the PPP.

In their last meeting on November 23, the PDM had failed to come up with a plan to launch its anti-government protest campaign, with Maulana Fazl declaring that they would meet on December 6 and devise “a final policy” and “announce very important decisions”. In the meeting, the Maulana was so furious with the PML-N leadership that at one stage he reportedly even offered to quit the opposition alliance’s presidentship. However, Nawaz Sharif persuaded the PDM chief not to do so and sought time till December 6 for in-house consultations.

Earlier, on November 6, PDM’s general secretary Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had announced that they had decided to launch a “decisive” anti-government protest campaign, starting with a public meeting in Karachi on November 13 and culminating with a long march to Islamabad, the date of which would be finalised later.

The PDM had started its protest campaign in October last year with public meetings in major cities. Some of the public gatherings were also addressed by self-exiled PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif through video link. The first phase of the alliance’s movement came to an abrupt end when the PDM leadership failed to announce any future programme following its last public meeting in Lahore on December 31, 2020.

Govt reaction

Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry lashed out at the PDM president for giving the call to hold march in Islamabad on the Pakistan Day.

“March 23 is the most important day for the people of Pakistan. The day is meant for uniting the nation, not dividing them,” the minister said while talking to the media. He said the PDM’s date and policy for the march was not final as Maulana Fazlur Rehman had a track record of changing his policies in the past.

The opposition had every right to launch the march and hold discussion on inflation, but there had been some reservations over the behavior of Maulana Fazl who wanted to derail the system so that he could get some political leverage, the minister said, expressing the hope that the date would be changed.

He claimed that at the PDM meeting, those who were part of parliament had expressed different points of view from those who were not part of the system. The minister said Maulana Fazl was taking a solo flight as nobody supported his march and policies. “Have some courage Maulana Fazlur Rehman and look to your right and left, there is no one with you as you are alone [in this altogether],” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2021

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