KARACHI: A large number of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers staged what they termed a “peace march” here on Friday at Banaras Chowk, condemning the suicide attack on a mosque in Peshawar earlier this week that killed more than 100 people.

Led by the party leaders, they chanted slogans against the recent surge in the incidents of terrorism, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and demanded the government and security agencies to stop that menace.

Addressing the protesters, the PTI leaders criticised the “imported government” of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), calling it a failure at every front of governance.

Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh said on the occasion that during the more than three-year governance of Imran Khan, the world forces never dared to question the peace efforts of Pakistan in Afghanistan.

“Neither any of them was allowed to carry out a drone attack on Pakistani soil,” he said. “Imran Khan had courage to point out the failures of the west in Afghanistan and highlight the sacrifices of countrymen before the world for peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But these imported rulers [ of the PDM] can go to any extent for dollars. They only know to beg and generate funds for their vested interests. They can never be serious for peace in Pakistan.”

Former Sindh governor and key party leader Imran Ismail said that on one hand Pakistan was sliding to economic collapse while on the other, the government had failed to maintain peace in the country. To cover up its failure, he said, the PDM government was putting blame on the previous government, making it a scapegoat.

“During the PTI government, Pakistan successfully maintained friendly relations with all the neighbouring countries and that too with grace and self-respect,” he said.

Demos in other cities

In Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and several other cities, PTI workers staged demonstrations outside press clubs on Friday evening in protest against skyrocketing price of POL products and essential commodities.

The local party office-bearers, who led the protests, accused the ‘imported’ coalition government of PDM of deliberately increasing prices on the demand of International Monetary Fund. People were literally made to cry over back-breaking prices of food and fuel, they said.

They said the present government was least concerned about peoples’ issues as it was just busy taking vindictive actions against PTI leaders and other opponents. This coalition government was interested only in serving its foreign masters and getting corruption cases against corrupt politicians quashed, they said.

They said that only Imran Khan could rid people of this deepening crisis.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2023