PDM holds rally despite govt ban NAWAZ SHARIF’S MOTHER DIES IN LONDON AT 91
Peshawar, Nov. 22:
Pakistan's newly-formed alliance of 11 Opposition parties on Sunday held its massive anti-government rally in Peshawar despite a ban imposed by the city administration owing to a spike in Covid-19 cases and security threats, with top coalition leaders predicting that the Imran Khan government will "have to go home by January". The fourth power show by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was held despite the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's warning that it may lodge cases against the PDM leaders if a spike in Covid-19 cases was witnessed in the province after the rally.
The alliance earlier held three massive back-toback gatherings in Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta. Addressing the gathering, Pakistan People's Party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari vowed that January will be the incumbent government's "last month in power" and the people will decide how Pakistan will be governed. "They will go home in January," he said. "Time is near when you, the people, would hold this selected government and its selectors responsible for current crises...," he said. On criticism over PDM's decision to went ahead with the rally despite the government ban, Bilawal said the government "only remembers Covid when they want to stop our rallies and your protest".
"They don't remember Covid when it comes to regularising medical staff or increasing salaries," he said. In his speech, PDM chief and Jamiat Ulema-iIslam (Fazl) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that all political parties agree and it is the movement's "clear stance" that the Imran Khan government came to power through a "rigged election".
He said that the people have "rejected the rigged government". "Our stance is very clear. Rigging has been done, we know who was behind it and the one who is na maloom (unknown), we all know who that is," he said in an apparent reference to the powerful army. He then
Lahore, Nov. 22: Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's mother Begum Shamim Akhtar died in London on Sunday. She was 91. Begum Akhtar was not well for the last one month or so, according to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party sources.
"On Sunday she breathed her last in London," PML-N deputy secretarygeneral Attaullah Tarar said. She had travelled to London in February last and had been living with Nawaz and her grandchildren. Tarar said the body of Begum Akhtar is likely to be brought back to Lahore on Monday and buried next to the grave of her husband Mian Sharif at the Jati Umra Raiwind residence of the Sharif family.
Tarar said an application is being filed with the authorities concerned for the release of Nawaz's younger brother and PMLN President Shahbaz Sharif on parole to attend the last rites of his mother. PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, declared ‘absconder' by a Pakistani court, is unlikely to return to the country to attend the last rites. went on to say: "We respect the army if it is our defence institution. But if it tries to become a political institution, it will have to tolerate criticism. Then it should not say, ' don't take our name'.
"Even today, we are giving you this deadline; stop supporting them (government), withdraw (your backing) and declare that this is not our government. Raise your voice against this government along with us, we will then be brothers.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz vice-president Maryam Nawaz left the venue in the middle of the rally after hearing the news of her grandmother's death.