LAHORE: In order to devise a joint strategy against the government, opposition parties, particularly PPP and the PML-N, have decided to hold an All Parties Conference (APC) immediately after Eid-ul-Azha.
During the meeting on Monday between PPP and PML-N at Bilawal House in the wake of telephonic discussion of opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, both sides announced a joint action committee to finalize the details. PML-N's Khawaja Asif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Rana Sanaullah, Marriyum Aurangzeb and PPP's Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Farhatullah Babar, and Nayyar Bukhari will be the members of the committee. In addition, Mian Iftikhar and Ameer Haider Khan Hoti from the ANP and Senator Mir Kabeer Shahi from the National Party will be part of it.
The committee will work on a joint strategy focusing on ways and means to topple the government.
Addressing the media after the meeting, PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said both sides are convinced that the government was responsible for the economic mess in the country. He said it is not possible for a country to sustain itself with such a failed economy. "The government has made the life of a common man miserable."
According to him, the car owner has left with no option but to use a motorbike and the one who had a motorbike is without any conveyance. "People cannot afford education for their children. Laborers, farmers, and graduates with degrees are worried," he added. He said Pakistan was facing internal and external threats due to the incumbent government. "Getting rid of this government has become a need of the hour and an all-parties conference will be convened soon after Eid-ul-Azha," he added.
He further said that the government was bringing a law according to which authorities can have any person arrested for 90 days without bail. "After [the 90 days], the remand can be extended for another h interior and the Punjab home secretary," he added.
He said any media worker, politician, worker, trader or businessman can be sent to prison by the government on a bogus chit prepared by prosecutors that accuses an individual of transfer of money through Hawala/Hundi.
"We cannot allow the government to impose 'black laws' on Pakistan under the garb of FATF due to which individual freedom of expression is suppressed," he said.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said both the parties were in agreement that the incumbent government was the 'problem' and they must work to rid the nation of it. According to him, the 'NAB-Niazi nexus' was enhancing its role with every passing day. He said there wasn't a single opposition leader in Pakistan today who had not suffered illegal detention or isolation torture at the hands of NAB.
He condemned the government for keeping opposition leaders Khursheed Shah and Hamza Shahbaz in detention. "This government is also responsible for suffocating the media," he said, reprimanding authorities for arresting Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and calling for his immediate release. He said the government has become a problem and the opposition parties are consented to launch a mass campaign against it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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