PDM announces to hold ‘anti-inflation march’ in Islamabad on 23rd March
ISLAMABAD, Dec 06 (SABAH): Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced on Monday that the opposition alliance would hold an “anti-inflation march” in Islamabad on March 23, 2022, Pakistan Day, to protest against the government’s failures.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad after a meeting of the heads of the PDM’s component parties, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the participants deliberated on the country’s current situation.
He stated that the ruling PTI was brought into power as a result of rigging in the 2018 general elections, because of which it was facing failure on several fronts.
He said that the march will be a “huge demonstration” and the “whole nation will participate”. “People will come to Islamabad from all corners of the country to participate in a demonstration against inflation, unemployment and poverty.”
He said PDM meetings will be held at a provincial level to prepare a strategy for the march. Giving a breakdown, the PDM president said that he will chair a meeting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while PML-N supremo Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan’s (JUP) Shah Awais Noorani will chair separate ones in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh, respectively.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that a seminar would also be held for which he would meet with the lawyers’ community as well as the representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council.
He said a date for the seminar would be finalised after consultations with lawyers, civil society, business and other communities so that all kinds of people could be taken into confidence over the alliance’s policies.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the issue of submitting resignations from parliament was also discussed during the meeting, adding that there was consensus on the topic. “[But] we will decide when and where to use this,” he said.
Concluding his speech, the PDM chief said that a meeting of the alliance’s steering committee had been called for today (Tuesday) at 2:00 PM to devise a strategy for the decisions that had been taken.
“All the participants of the meeting also condemned the incident in Sialkot,” he said, referring to last week’s brutal lynching of a Sri Lankan national. “No citizen has the right to take the law into their own hands,” he said, adding that such incidents should be stopped.
Questioned by a reporter over the date of the march, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the PDM was also a “part of the nation”. “It is a national level issue […] no one owns the country, the state owns the country.”
Asked about the duration of the protest, the Maulana smiled and replied: “You heard about March 23 right now. Wait and see what happens next.”
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the PDM’s decision to call a march on Pakistan Day an “extremely irresponsible and immoral” move.
“Pakistan’s armed forces stage a national parade on March 23 which is attended by citizens, ambassadors and various delegates,” he said.
The minister said that Islamabad is on high alert for the parade, adding that some roads are closed two or three days in advance in order to prepare.
He said that announcing a march at such a time is not a sign of goodwill towards the country. He also advised the PDM to move the demonstration to April.