Opposition leaders are being silenced by corrupt govt of Pakistan, says PML-N
Oct 05, 2020
Lahore [Pakistan], October 5 : Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Sunday slammed the Imran Khan government saying that "political revolution" in the country would be possible only through the newly formed alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), adding that opposition leaders are being "silenced" for speaking against a "corrupt" government.
The major political parties in Pakistan formed an alliance ---Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)--- with the aim to oust the Imran Khan government.
"The incumbent government is corrupt that is why it has bowed down before the sugar and wheat mafia," PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb was quoted as saying by The News International.
"PML-N leaders are being silenced because they speak against the surging inflation," she added.
Aurangzeb said that a "false conspiracy" was hatched against party president Shehbaz Sharif, who is the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Last month, the PML-N president was arrested in a money laundering case on Monday from the Lahore High Court, according to Gulf News. Shahbaz is currently on a 14 days physical remand.
Besides the PML-N president, the country's anti-corruption body has issued a notice to another opposition leader and Jamiat Ulema e-Islam's Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman.
According to Dawn, the notice against Rehman and others pertains to "corruption and corrupt practices/accumulation of assets beyond means", which was issued by the country's National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The first public meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) -- an alliance of almost all major opposition parties -- will be held on October 11 in Quetta.
PDM proposes to launch a mass protest campaign comprising public gatherings, political rallies, no-confidence motions, en masse resignations from assemblies, and, finally, a long march in January that will culminate in a sit-in in Islamabad until their demands are met.
As opposition parties in Pakistan have formed a new united front with an aim of restore "genuine and undiluted" democracy in the country, a European think tank said the opposition parties will need to "stick together" if they really intend to "loosen the stranglehold that the military establishment has had over governance and indeed the economy".
"In the backdrop of these positive indications, the opposition will need to stick together if it really intends to loosen the stranglehold that the military establishment has had over governance and indeed the economy, of the country ever since its inception in 1947," the European Foundation of South Asian Studies (EFSAS), said in a commentary.
