PDM receiving foreign funding, claims Shireen Mazari

Minister for human Rights Shireen Mazari on Wednesday claimed that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) ¬– an alliance of 11 opposition parties – is receiving ‘foreign funding’.

The minister made this claim while taking exclusively to Dawn News on Sunday. She said a lot of foreign funding is being received by the people who are involved in the alliance.

"If we get the evidence [...] but when we receive hardcore evidence, then it will become the responsibility of the government to take action," she said stopping short of saying the government had evidence to back up the claim.

She said that it had come to her knowledge that the evidence was not surfacing regarding funding for opposition alliance from abroad.

"I have heard that a lot of evidence has been found that funding, encouragement is being sent,” she said.

"Let's see how things unfold."

Commenting on opposition’s decision to resign from the parliament, she said government is waiting for opposition members in the Parliament to submit their resignations.

She termed opposition’s move a "drama".

"If they want to resign, they should hand [their resignation letters] to the speaker [of the National Assembly] instead of party leaders," she said.

A day earlier, PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced that after a meeting in Islamabad it had been decided that all opposition lawmakers will submit their resignations to their respective party heads by December 31.