LAHORE: Rival opposition parties joined hands with TahirulQadri’s Pakistan AwamiTehreek (PAT) in an anti-government protest on Wednesday in a bid to seek justice for victims of the 2014 shootings in Lahore’s Model Town.
The allied opposition parties — which included the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami Muslim League (AML), Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), and others — threatened to topple the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government and said they would announce their next course of action in the coming days.Addressing the rally on Lahore’s Mall Road, PAT chief TahirulQadri claimed the Sharifs would not be able to step out of their homes if he mobilises his workers.“You won’t be able to step out of Jati Umrah, if I ask my workers,” Qadri said, taking the stage once again in the second session of the rally.
“We are holding a meeting within two days, and will announce a date. We will call a meeting of APC parties, its steering committee,” he said.
“It has been decided that you will go home; you will have to go home,” he warned the ruling PML-N. He said the joint opposition would soon announce its next course of action.
Qadri, however, failed to bring Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari on the stage at the same time, with the PPP co-chairperson and his party leaders addressing the first session of the rally, and PTI leadership dominating the second half of the show of political power in the heart of Lahore.
Khan, who is a vocal opponent of Zardari, listened to the PPP co-chairperson’s address on television at Jahangir Tareen’s residence and departed for the venue only after Zardari stepped down from the stage.
Addressing the rally, Khan lambasted the parliament for allowing a ‘criminal’ to be elected a party president.
“I curse the parliament that made a criminal the president of a party,” he said, in an apparent reference to the PML-N’s decision to elect ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif as its president. ”The two [Sharif] brothers are responsible for the Model Town incident,” said Imran. “I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it [Model Town incident] was done on orders received by the police.”
Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari while addressing the rally, said Pakistan faced danger from Jati Umrah referring to the Sharif family residence.
“They [PML-N] know that they can be disqualified any time, but I just think for Pakistan,” said Zardari.
Source:Geonews.com
