ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid on Tuesday termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) a ‘flop show’ and said he welcomes opposition’s planned ‘long march’ to the federal capital adding that it will be their last political card.
Addressing a press conference after the PDM’s protest, he said only 2,000 to 3,000 people participated in the protest.
Rashid said for the first time, the opposition was allowed to hold a protest in the Red Zone.
Without creating any hurdles in their way, the opposition hardly gathered over 2,000 people, he claimed, adding that even the metro bus service was not suspended.
The law enforcement agencies neither placed any container nor stopped any vehicle of the protesters, he said.
About PDM chief Maulana Fazl Rehman, Rashid said all the opposition parties would leave him alone like in the past.
Without naming the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he said his (jigar) was celebrating electoral win in Umer Kot, while the Maulana was dragging his feet on the road.
Reminding of the past to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he said Rehman was enjoying the company of former dictator Musharraf when the students of Lal Masjid were up in arms during the siege of the Lal Masjid.
About the participation of seminaries’ students in the protest, he said only few students from a seminary of Sadiqabad attended the protest.
About ongoing foreign funding case, he claimed the ruling PTI had presented the signatures of 40,000 people as an endorsement of the party’s stance, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had not furnished a single cheque.
He said the Broadsheet scandal would be another Panama Papers for the opposition parties. Prime Minister Imran Khan has constituted a committee to probe Broadsheet scandal and action will be taken against those who were found involved in it.
The interior minister asked the PML-N vice president, Maryam Nawaz to first read Broadsheet then comment on it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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