Opposition’s PDM pulls mammoth crowd in Karachi’s Bagh-e-Jinnah ground

KARACHI: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Sunday pulled a massive crowd at the Bagh-e-Jinnah stadium on Sunday, with leading Opposition figures telling PM Imran Khan his days in government are “numbered”.

PDM leaders who took to the stage to lash out at the prime minister and his government included PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, JUI-F chief and PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PTM’s Mohsin Dawar and the BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal, among others.

Maryam said that she knew that PM Imran Khan was under pressure, but he could have at least respected the prime minister’s office. “If there is no one to teach you [how to react under pressure] then you could have learned from Nawaz Sharif.”

Maryam reminded PM Imran Khan that despite his 126-day-long sit-in, Nawaz “hadn’t mentioned him even once”.

“In a fight among elders, there is no room for children,” she said, adding that “no one had mentioned your name”.

“The world knows that you have taken over [National Accountability Bureau], Federal Investigation Agency, Federal Board of Revenue, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan,” Maryam says to PM Imran Khan as she addressed the Karachi jalsa.

“Come and tell the people: why did you steal the people’s employment? Tell the people, why did you rob the people of [affordable] medicine?”

Responding to PM Imran Khan’s allegations against her and Bilawal, she said: “The person who spent his life living off his rich friend’s money should not make such comments.”

Slamming the prime minister further, she said that the Panah Gah that had been established, catered to those people who had lost their homes after PM Imran Khan came into power.

PPP chairman said this is not a fight to gain power. “Whenever there is an attack on democracy, people are crushed under the weight of such injustice.”

“The poor people go hungry, people’s lives become unsafe, the air becomes unbreathable.”

“The freedom to speak, to breathe, to live a life of dignity and freedom from poverty — democracy is the answer to all of this,” Bilawal stressed.