Key Points:
- Pakistan’s opposition coalition to hold its first public meeting on Friday night.
- Maulana Fazlur Rehman will lead a protest from Lahore to Gujranwala.
- The government released arrest warrants for retired President Asif Ali Zardari in a graft case.
- “The government of Imran Khan is in real risk.”
- Sharif charged the Army with meddling in Pakistan’s politics.
It is all set for Pakistan’s opposition coalition to hold its first public meeting on Friday night to kick off a series of protests aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government out of office.
Protest will be lead by Maulana Fazlur Rehman:
Chief of the Jamiat-Ulema Islam (F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who also leads the 11-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), will lead a protest from Lahore to Gujranwala in the run-up to a community hearing attended by leaders of virtually every political party in the opposition.
Others who will Join the Meeting:
Also attending the meeting would be PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PML-N leaders Maryam Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif. To intimidate the opposition, on Thursday, the government released arrest warrants for retired President Asif Ali Zardari in a graft case through its anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Currently, Zardari is hospitalized in Karachi. Leader of the party Bilawal Bhutto commented that “simple methods used to harass the opposition” were these.
The government, for its part, has confronted to shut down parts of the nation, citing the increase in cases of coronavirus. On Thursday, planning minister Asad Umar said there are “unmistakable signs of the growth of corona” in the nation and the government will have to take “restrictive steps” to curb the spread, which would have “negative impacts” on people’s livelihoods.
Umar in his tweet:
The national positivity of Covid-19 cases was 2.37 per cent on Wednesday, the highest in more than 50 days, Umar said in a series of tweets. The minister, who also oversees Pakistan’s response to the pandemic, said that an average of 11 deaths from viruses was reported in the first four days of the week, the highest after August 10.
Despite the start of the winter, observers report that Pakistan’s political temperature has begun to climb. One analyst said that if the opposition parties succeeded in organizing successive rallies and meetings in Pakistan during the next week and were able to attract huge crowds, “the government of Imran Khan is in real risk.”
Nawaz Sharif against the Prime Minister Imran Khan:
In September, the opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif led the charge against the Prime Minister Imran Khan though when he told the All Parties Conference that he had little to do with Khan, who was the chosen prime minister, and more, asking those who had chosen him to offer a clue to the strong military leadership of the country.
Sharif charged the Army with meddling in Pakistan’s politics and sabotaging democracy and political institutions by describing it as a “power above the power.”
