FAZL ACCUSES PPP OF ‘TRYING TO STAB’ PDM IN THE BACK

ISLAMABAD, AUG 28: Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday assailed the PPP for attempting to “stab the opposition movement in its back”, and gave a strong indication that the alliance had moved on from seeking any future reunions with the party.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi alongside PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif after a PDM meeting, Rehman said that the movement has only one target — which is to rid the country of the current ruling government.

“As far as the PPP is concerned, they tried with all seriousness to stab PDM in its back but we are not going on the offensive against them,” he said.

“We don’t want to fight two wars,” the PDM chief said, adding that the PPP issue had become a thing of the past and called on reporters to refrain from bringing up the matter.

Commenting on the PDM’s Karachi rally scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday), Rehman said that the alliance would also raise the issues being faced by the people of Sindh.

He also dispelled reports that women had been barred from attending. “Women will participate in the rally and be given protection,” he said.

During the press conference, the PDM chief said the leaders of all the political parties that were a part of the movement had expressed concerns over the “instability” in the country.

He said that the PDM will “lay down a web of rallies” in the country and also launch a road caravan so that citizens can protest for their rights.

He said that the PDM would meet in the first week of September to decide the order of the rallies and the schedule for the road caravan.

“The PDM has also decided that it will issue a white paper on the government’s three-year performance. Work has begun [in this regard] and we will lay bare their performance in front of the people,” he said.

Rehman rejects ‘one-sided’ elections reforms

Commenting on electoral reforms, Rehman said that the government will not be allowed to carry out one-sided reforms. “This is illegal and unconstitutional, we reject such reforms.”

He said that the government was claiming to conduct transparent elections with the use of electronic voting machines when they had been rejected by the entire world. The Election Commission of Pakistan has also expressed its reservations, he said.

“This is a conspiracy against democracy, and like the Result Transmission System, an attempt to steal the elections.”

He said that the meeting also took note of the historic inflation in the country, which had become an unbearable burden for the common man, and lashed out at the government’s “anti-poor” policies.

Rehman said that the PDM also rejected the government’s proposed media regulatory authority and stood in solidarity with the journalist community.