PAKISTAN OPPOSITION TAPS INTO ANTI-GOVERNMENT SENTIMENT
▶ Alliance takes aim at military and Prime Minister Imran Khan as rallies draw huge crowds
Opposition rallies in Pakistan attracted huge crowds at the weekend, mounting the biggest political test of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tenure and the largest challenge to the country’s military establishment in years.
Gatherings in Gujranwala and Karachi drew tens of thousands of people calling for Mr Khan’s removal and decrying military interference in politics.
The until now unheard of direct attacks on the chief of the army accused him of plotting to have former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ousted and Mr Khan elected.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 parties, vowed to continue the pressure on the government.
The bloc, which includes Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), hope to take advantage of anger at rising food prices and economic gloom.
Temperatures rose yesterday when police seized the husband of Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of Mr Sharif.
Muhammad Safdar was arrested after complaints from Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaaf ( PTI) party that he had raised political slogans at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Speaking by video from London, Mr Sharif told crowds at Gujranwala Stadium on Friday night that Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, chief of army staff, will have to be accountable for bringing Mr Khan to power.
Two days later, his daughter used the Karachi gathering to say that Mr Khan had “snatched jobs from people” and “snatched two-times-a-day food from the people”.
Pakistan’s opposition leaders have been pursued by anti-corruption courts, and Mr Sharif refuses to return after being let
out of prison for medical treatment in Britain.
Anti-corruption investigators last week issued arrest warrants for former PPP president Asif Ali Zardari for suspected money laundering.
Pakistan’s military has ruled the country directly and indirectly for much of the nation’s history.
The PDM’s decision to challenge the military leaves it charting a difficult course in a
country where troops and generals command widespread public respect.
Farzana Shaikh, a Pakistan analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the movement was not yet as significant a challenge to military power as 1980s protests led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Yet the singling out of a sitting army chief for such public criticism was a first, she said.
People at the rally in Gujranwala, a PML-N stronghold, appeared more angry at Mr Khan for his failure to rein in prices rather than flouting of the constitution.
Food price inflation hit nearly 15 per cent last month, and one in five Pakistanis has had to borrow food or ask friends or relatives for help, according to Gallup polls.
Mr Khan said opposition leaders were criminals trying to use their parties’ street power to press for an amnesty, which he would not grant.
The PML-N and PPP leadership’s history of making deals with the military made the goals of their bloc difficult to predict, said Dr Shaikh.
“We are waiting to see whether or not this show of force can really build up in terms of a major movement, or whether it is to send a message to the military establishment that we are ready to sit down and do a deal, but the present situation of harassing and hounding has to stop.”