Pak Oppn leaders pound Imran Khan at rally, cops ‘arrest’ Maryam Nawaz’s husband

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration got here beneath assault at Sunday’s mass protest rally that was held at Karachi’s Jinnah floor. Thousands of individuals attended the occasion held by the newly-formed 11-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif and at the moment PML-N vice-president, attended the mass protest the place she launched a scathing assault on PM Khan in a speech.

“When you are pressed for answers, you hide behind the armed forces. You coward! You bring the army into disrepute. You use them (the army) to hide your own failures. Who gave you this right?” she questioned the prime minister amid cheers from the group.

In her speech, Maryam additionally responded to feedback made by PM Khan a day earlier. “Yesterday, you must have seen on your TV screens a man screaming his defeat,” she informed the group. “You (Khan) tell people ‘ghabrana nai hai’ (don’t worry), there has only been one ‘jalsa’ (rally). But you are already worried.”

Maryam challenged Khan to ban the opposition PML-N Party, saying, “Don’t even think about it. This is the biggest party of Pakistan.”

Also Read: Maryam Nawaz’s husband Safdar Awan ‘arrested’ in Karachi after rally in opposition to Imran Khan

In a reference to India, Maryam stated, “You say the opposition is speaking (Indian Prime Minister Nardendra) Modi’s language, when it was you who prayed for Modi’s re-election, were dying to talk to him, gave him Kashmir on a plate… and we are the ones speaking his language?”

Maryam was softer in her strategy when she spoke about Pakistan’s army institution, saying the PDM was not in opposition to the military however solely a few of its generals.

“Those soldiers who sacrificed their lives, Nawaz salutes them, Maryam Nawaz salutes them, we all salute them. Remember this, one or two personalities are not the entire institution, but one or two people can defame the entire institution. And when they take cover of that institution, they cause heavy losses to that institution,” she stated.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari additionally gave a speech on the occasion, criticising PM Khan for promulgating an ordinance to take over two islands positioned close to Karachi.

He stated Khan betrayed the folks of Karachi by providing an unconvincing package deal and taking up the 2 islands to be able to construct housing colonies.

Bilawal additionally questioned the ruling social gathering’s technique on Kashmir, accusing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of weakening the Kashmir trigger. “He (Khan) claimed to be the ambassador of Kashmiris. But now, he has become the lawyer of Kulbhushan (Jadhav). He (Khan) has done a deal on Kashmir,” Bilawal stated.

“This incapable and clueless prime minister will have to go home,” stated Bilawal and informed the viewers that the principle demand of the PDM was “real democracy”.

A shock speaker on the occasion was Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Mohsin Dawar. The PTM member of parliament talked about human rights violations in north Waziristan and different elements of the tribal areas. He lamented that over time, folks had gone lacking not simply within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), however all throughout the nation.

“I consider this government to be worse than a dictatorship because they have placed a prime minister as a punching bag. In reality, the decision makers are the Pakistan Army and its agencies,” he informed the group.

Another chief who spoke on the protest rally was Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s (BNP-M) Akhtar Mengal, who started his speech by mockingly welcoming PDM leaders into what he referred to as a “gallery of traitors”.

“Traitor certificates for us, the followers of Bacha Khan, were issued in 1947. Our certificates are so old, they are moth-eaten by now. Yours are new, so I welcome you,” he stated.

The BNP-M chief additionally questioned why Pakistan was created within the first place. “Was this country made for us or for the Defence Housing Agency (DHA)?” he requested.

Political observers say the Karachi rally was a hit. The provincial authorities, which belongs to the opposition PPP, is believed to have managed the occasion’s logistics.