LARKANA: Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, adviser to Sindh chief minister on universities and boards, has said that the “huge” response to Pakistan Democratic Movement’s public meetings has unsettled minds of federal ministers.

Khuhro said at a reception at a local hotel here on Wednesday that only three public meetings of PDM had proved enough to upset the prime minster and his cabinet members.

He rejected the federal ministers’ claim that PDM’s public meetings were flopped shows and said if it was so then

what had compelled the federal government and its army of ministers to keep talking about the gatherings.

He said that “extraordinary” public response to PDM’s gatherings indicated that people had gotten sick of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s policies and performance and they believed it was time for PTI to pack up and go.

He said the ministers were talking about the end of PDM’s role by December but they were in fact pointing towards their own departure. It would be the PTI government that would pack up and leave and not the PDM, he said.

He said the prime minister, who had been claiming all along about army and his government being on the same page, had objected to contacts between the army chief and the opposition, which indicated that both the people and the institutions were getting fed up with Imran Khan.

Khuhro said that peoples’ response to PDM public meetings had forced the prime minister to issue threats that he would bring people on roads if his government was ousted. The kind of language the prime minister was using indicated that his chair had started shaking now. “You have proven yourself a ‘failure’, therefore, people will not stand by you,” he said.

He said that the prime minister, who talked about bringing back Mian Nawaz Sharif from London, should first show courage to bring Altaf Hussain and retired General Pervez Musharraf to the country. Why was he hesitant in uttering any word against Altaf who had been behind May 12 massacre of people in Karachi, he said.

He said that it was easy for Imran Khan to threaten the opposition with strict action but he fell silent when it came to initiating action against killer of hundreds of innocent people in Karachi and violator of the constitution.

He said that threats were a clear sign of weakness as only those who could not handle a situation opted for issuing threats and throwing challenges.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2020