LAHORE:The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announces that the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), of which it is also a constituent, will continue holding its rallies notwithstanding the government’s threats of stopping them by force.

“Despite threats of the government, the series of public meetings of PDM will continue to be held,” Palwasha Khan, central deputy information secretary, announced at a press conference here on Thursday.

Flanked by Hassan Murtaza and others, she criticized the government for taking refuge behind the coronavirus to bar the opposition from holding rallies and asked if the pandemic spreads only through the opposition’s meetings and not by the government’s, a reference to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s own public meetings.

She said if the government imposed lockdown to block the opposition from holding rallies, then the PDM would decide its course of action.

The PDM is scheduled to hold its public meeting in Multan on Nov 30.

Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s media talk in the city last day, Ms Khan said Niazi Saheb told multiple lies on Wednesday including the claim of eliminating land-grabber mafia from Lahore, while only the land of the PM’s relatives retrieved from the grabbers and the rest of the city was at the mercy of the mafia.

She regretted that the incumbent government plunged the country into a ditch just in two years where it could not reach in seven decades.

She said friendly countries like Saudi Arab had been pushed away while some TV anchors at the behest of the government were publicly talking of recognizing the Zionist state of Israel.

She urged the Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice of it.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2020