Rawalpindi first stop as PDM eyes country-wide anti-government protests

Staff Reporter – Rawalpindi:

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Wednesday kicked off its countrywide anti-government protests from Rawalpindi as the masses suffer due to rising inflation and hike in prices of essential commodities.

Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem Ahmed, including the PDM’s local leadership and women, are partaking in the protest.

Due to the ongoing protest near Liaquat Bagh, the flow of traffic has been disrupted on Muree Road.

Meanwhile, Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed said he was happy to know that the Opposition alliance had decided to kick off their anti-government campaign from his home city.

The interior minister said the government would not allow the Opposition to take law into its hand, as he mentioned that Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally dealing with the issue of inflation.

“If Shahbaz Sharif held a meeting with someone, then it is a positive development,” he added.

A day earlier, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif held a high-level meeting of the party to finalise the schedule for protests and rallies against the PTI-led government.

The PML-N will hold its first protest jalsa in Rawalpindi today, with Shahbaz Sharif urging workers and leaders of the party at the district and provincial level to partake in the protests.

Local PDM leaders have convened a meeting of the party at 2pm in Islamabad, where the dates and venues for the Islamabad protests will be finalised.

‘Worthless Opposition’

Lashing out at the PDM Rasheed had earlier said that the prime minister was lucky as he had such a “worthless” Opposition to deal with.

The interior minister had said that the government does not feel threatened by the Opposition at all because “it is spineless”.

“In fact, Prime Minister Imran Khan is lucky that he got such a worthless Opposition,” the interior minister had said while speaking to the media in Islamabad.

Rasheed had also reacted to the Opposition’s criticism of the PTI-led government due to the rising inflation in the country and said that the situation arose due to the policies of the previous governments as well as the coronavirus situation in the country.

Speaking about the PDM, Rasheed had said that the movement has turned into a “dead entity”.

“This worthless Opposition has not been able to make any decision so far,” he had said, adding that the PDM had set out to oust the government last December but almost one year on, it is still planning to oust it without taking any concrete actions.

“This is how politics work in this country. Every Opposition claims that the government will be ousted soon,” he had said.

The minister had admitted that the country has been facing rising inflation and said that the incumbent government could not be blamed for it as it was the faulty policies of the previous government that has led to the current situation.