PESHAWAR: Opposition party workers organised protest demonstrations on Sunday in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and demanded the removal of registered FIRs against members of the Pakistan Democratic Movement in Peshawar and other parts of the country.
Opposition workers led by their leaders in Peshwar, including Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl provincial spokesman Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan, Zulfiqar Afghani, Pakistan Peoples Party city district chief, Rashid Mehmood Khan, PML-N provincial vice president and others, gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club and shouted anti-government slogans.
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Speaking on the occasion, they said nothing wrong had been done by the PDM employees, but the government tried to victimise them only for attending the public meeting in Peshawar on Nov 22. They warned that if the government did not remove the cases against their office-bearers, they would respond strongly. They said their political and civil right was to stage protests in a peaceful manner.
Say struggle will continue till ouster of govt
The speakers said they would be following the top PDM leadership’s decisions and would not bow to any tactics of coercion. They also condemned the arrests of political workers in Multan and baton charges and urged the government to free them immediately.
The protesters warned them to stage rallies on a regular basis in case the FIRs reported in Peshawar were not automatically removed, carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands.
Mr. Afghani and Mr. Jalil Jan have denounced the rising prices of basic goods and said that they had made people’s lives unbearable. People were ready to march on Islamabad to attend a sit-in outside the parliament, they said.
They said the PDM’s fight will continue in the country until the government’s ouster. The death of six people at Khyber Teaching Hospital was condemned because of delays in the delivery of oxygen cylinders.
JUI-F employees took to the streets in Dera Ismail Khan to record their demonstration against the arrests of Multan PDM leaders and workers and the action in Peshawar.
Although bearing placards engraved with anti-government slogans, the demonstrators marched across bazaars. They shouted slogans against the PTI government for its inability to contain the country’s inflation.
The PPP and JUI-F staff organised separate rallies in Tank against faulty government policies and the arrests of PDM activists in Multan and the registration of FIRs in Peshawar.
PPP City President Shams Mahsood and others, addressing the participants, condemned the current provincial and federal governments for their inability to provide the people with relief from the price rise and fix their other concerns.
The JUI-F rally was addressed by Mufti Allah Noor, its district deputy leader, and others who condemned the arrests of PDM activists and vowed to widen the demonstrations if the government refused to revoke the FIRs.
In Mansehra, provincial President Humayun Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party said that the government had lost the confidence of the people and the long march of the Pakistan Democratic Movement will prove to be the last nail in its coffin.
He told a public meeting here in Balakot, “Prepare for a long march on the federal capital as it would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the PTI government.” He said that the government was giving protocol to a mafia embroiled in the sugar and wheat flour crises, but it was not long before all such elements met the law.
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“We are dedicated to ousting this government that has put this nation on the verge of bankruptcy,” he added, adding that unemployment and inflation have made people’s lives unbearable.
District President Malik Farooq and General Secretary Mohammad Fareed also addressed the meeting.
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