Pakistan opposition terms PDM drive against Imran Khan govt as 'jihad'

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has termed the 11-party movement against the incumbent government of Imran Khan a 'jihad', reported Dawn.

At a PDM rally organised at Malakand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he declared that the nation is ready to offer any sacrifice for this cause. He pledged that jihad would continue till 'rulers stopped oppressing the poor'.

The Malakand rally is among the several rallies organised by PDM to oust the corrupt government of Imran Khan. Earlier this month, a rally was held at Bahawalpur, including those in Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta, Multan and Lahore since October 16. It has demanded the resignation of Imran Khan by January 31 on corruption charges.

Maulana in Malakand rally equated the Imran-led government with General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf's repressive regime and said that there was no democracy in the country and government was conspiring against the Constitution and provinces and "martial law is in place which is worse than General Zia's and Gen Musharraf's eras," reported Dawn.

He urged the people to gather under the umbrella of PDM to kick out this 'incompetent government' and restore real democracy in the country and remove the 'incompetent and selected' government from power who had snatched the mandate of the people.

Charging the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of acting on the orders of Imran-government he criticised the ongoing accountability process in the country and termed it partial and challenged NAB officials to come and arrest him if they had the courage. He said NAB was only filing cases against leaders of opposition parties and it had closed eyes on the corruption of leaders of the incumbent government, reported Dawn.

He also informed that PDM will stage a protest in front of the Election Commission in Islamabad on January 19 and also hold a protest million march in Karachi on January 21 against conspiracy to recognise Israel.

Earlier, Imran Khan has begun to take steps toward ending a decades-old diplomatic impasse with Israel, following its key ally, Saudi Arabia, settling on an unstated position of discrete contacts but no diplomatic ties due to shifting geopolitics in the Middle-east. The recent recognition of Israel by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan is a case in point.

Islamabad has introduced the emotive issue to the public through pro-establishment media, so as to condition them for a prospective shift in policy as they have never recognised Israel. The Pakistani passport is the only one in the world that explicitly states that you can travel anywhere using the document -- except Israel.

Reiterating his resolve to march on Islamabad, he added that the entire country was ready to oust the corrupt government of Imran Khan.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also addressed the public meeting and said that this rally was a referendum against the 'selected government', adding that the people of Malakand had given their verdict to oust incompetent rulers from power, reported Dawn.

Taking a shot at Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said the people had become fed up with rulers due to their continued suffering at the hands of these incompetent and fake rulers for a long time. He charged them with non-fulfillment of promises made with the people during the election campaign.

Bilawal vowed to get rid of this 'puppet government' and restore true democracy in the country with the support of the masses. He said the people of Malakand were brave as neither they bowed down before terrorists nor dictators.

Terming Imran Khan as 'coward', he said that when the Army Public School in Peshawar had been attacked, this Imran Khan was dancing at the D-Chowk in Islamabad and now when families of Shia Hazara victims of the Mach tragedy were staging the sit-in, the prime minister had called them 'blackmailers', reported Dawn.

"This proved that blood of the people is cheaper in Naya Pakistan than their life," he added.

He also took a shot on the plunging economy of the country, the economy of the country had been ruined by policies of the 'selected government', adding that "even economies of poor countries like Afghanistan and Bangladesh are going up at a rapid pace than Pakistan", he added.

Reminding Imran of his promised ten million jobs to the unemployed youth and building five million houses for the homeless, he said that after coming to power Imran-led government 'incompetent govt' had started destroying houses in the name of encroachments.

He also termed the NAB ongoing accountability process one-sided and selected one, adding that corruption could only be eliminated from society when the process of accountability was fair, even-handed and was the same for everyone including politicians, judges and army generals, reported Dawn.

Earlier, the rally was also addressed by PML-N provincial chief Amir Muqam, PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Maulana Owais Noorani, Agha Hassan and others, reported Dawn.

(ANI)

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