PDM decides to go ahead with 'anti-inflation' rally to Islamabad on March 23

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Tuesday that the opposition alliance had decided to hold an "anti-inflation" long march to Islamabad on Pakistan Day (March 23).

Speaking to the media in Islamabad after a meeting of the PDM, he said that "the PDM march will enter [Islamabad] on March 23."

When asked how the PDM will enter Islamabad on March 23 as security arrangements would be tight, he replied: "They [the government] knew that we were staging a long march on that date. Under what conspiracy did they make such recommendations?"

“People will turn to Islamabad from all corners of the country and this anti-inflation march will be the last nail in the coffin for this government.”

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He said all opposition parties have been asked to make preparations for the long march.

On Monday, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid had urged the opposition to reconsider their rally in Islamabad on March 23.

"On March 23, leaders from different countries would be in Islamabad to attend an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit," Rashid said.

"Reconsider your decisions. There is Covid-19 and [then] there are terrorism-related threats," he said.

Meanwhile, talking about the Transparency International (TI) report released earlier on Tuesday, the PDM chief said the government had labeled all opposition leaders as corrupt but the report exposed the true face of the incumbent government.

Transparency International: Pakistan's rank worsens in corruption perception index

"Parties formed by external powers are not the true representatives of the people," the PDM chief claimed.

Pakistan's position has worsened in the latest corruption perception index, dropping from 124th to 140th place among 180 countries, revealed Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2021) report.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organisation working to end corruption worldwide, released its CPI, showing 25 countries improved their ranking while 23 worsened.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the tenth year in a row, and two-thirds of countries score below 50.