ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has asserted that Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) planned long march would not be much effective if the opposition members did not resign from the parliament first.
“If we don’t submit resignations from the assemblies then there may not be a lot of benefit to the long march,” he said while addressing a press conference in Peshawar today (Monday).
Maulana Fazlur Rehman further informed that the PDM meeting will discuss the final plan of action for the march, scheduled to take place around the end of the month.
Accusing the institutions of interfering in the Senate elections, he said that the recent Senate elections for the post of chairman and deputy chairman were engineered by state institutions. “The whole nation saw who installed the cameras in the Senate,” he added.
The PDM president asked why the legitimate votes were rejected after the conclusion of polling. “The interference of institutions in the Senate elections is visible. All institutions were blind during the election of the deputy chairman,” he added.
He added that in the past, members of different parties had misused their votes but, the betrayal of a single member does not change the stance of the party as a whole. He also claimed that PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz was being threatened as NAB had approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to cancel her bail.
Meanwhile, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said Monday leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — the Opposition parties’ anti-government coalition — had called a meeting a day later to ponder and clarify the issue of resignations.
“We will try to convince those who do not agree to resign,” Maryam said. “Today’s meeting was chaired by PML-N Supremo, Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz and other leaders from Lahore participated” in it as well, she said.
The PML-N leader noted that it was very “encouraging” that the people had responded to “our calls” for justice. “Pakistan will move towards a better future,” she added.
“The PDM is a coalition of 10 parties and remains united on a larger agenda,” she said, noting that her party, the PML-N, stood for principle and was together under Nawaz Sharif’s leadership.
She said the entire nation had rejected the PTI regime despite “rigging” but underscored how the government launched attacks at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) instead of apologizing to it.
