ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), on Tuesday, deferred announcement on “decisive” decisions with regard to holding of “long march” towards Islamabad and resignation from the assemblies as part of its anti-government drive until December 6 for further deliberations within the parties in the alliance.
The announcement comes after a meeting of the PDM’s meeting of the party heads, which was about to make a final decision on the recommendations already compiled by its steering committee a day earlier, which included the option of a “long march” towards Islamabad, resignations from the assemblies, sit-in protest, major protest rallies in Lahore and Gwadar, countrywide shutter down and wheel-jam strike, besides protest rallies, and road caravans in all the provinces.
The meeting was chaired by PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman, with other senior leaders including PML-N senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP) chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, and others in attendance, while PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif, president Shehbaz Sharif, vice president Maryam Nawaz, participated in the meeting via video link.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that after a thorough discussion, the meeting decided to call another meeting on December 6 to make “major and decisive” decisions on the recommendations of the steering committee.
“The parties within the PDM have been asked to make final consultations within their respective parties and come up with a final decision in the next meeting on December 6,” he said.
“The final recommendations would be presented in the meeting, after that a final decision would be made followed by “very important” announcements. It is not that far…we would go this way towards a “decisive” decision to get the people out of this “repression”,” he maintained.
Responding to question, he said that unless this government is sent home, there will be no relief to the people as far as the inflation is concerned. “For this purpose we are going towards an important and a ‘decisive’ step,” he added.
He said that the meeting rejected the entire legislation business made during the November 17 joint sitting of the parliament and declared the passage of 33 bills from the joint session within a few hours was a “big joke” with the parliamentary practice.
He said that the “major joke”, which perhaps has no precedence in the entire parliamentary history was that some bills were also passed from the joint session, which were never tabled in any house of the parliament. He said that under the constitution, a bill is tabled in one house or the other house, where it is either passed or rejected, then it is referred to the joint sitting of the parliament on rejection.
“It’s violation of the Article 70 of the Constitution and is a “fake” legislation which perhaps has no precedent in the past of any such “joke” to have done with the parliament in the past,” he maintained.
He said that through the legislation in the joint sitting, an “attack” has been launched on the authority of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), adding that the nation demands an independent election commission, “but through the legislation an effort has been made to restrict its authority given to it by the Constitution.” “This is not acceptable, as it is in violation of the Constitution,” he said, adding that the legal experts are also “unanimous” in their opinion that it is against the constitution, while the ECP has also expressed its reaction.
He said that the meeting also condemned the unfulfilled promises of this “fake” government of giving 10 million jobs as a “big fraud” with the youth, while five million people have been made jobless during the past three and a half years. He said that the government promised to give five million houses whereas, the same number of houses have been razed in the name of encroachments.
About the right to vote to the overseas Pakistanis, he said that the PDM called upon the overseas Pakistanis not to come in the “ploy” of this “fake” government. He said that the PDM considers the overseas Pakistanis as the country’s asset and also decided that to give representation to them in the parliament, a procedure in light of the constitution would be adopted and deliberated upon.
He said that the meeting also rejected the legislation with regard to electronic voting machines (EVMs) as a tool for “pre poll rigging”.
He said that meeting also discussed the decisions of the judiciary against politicians, party heads, particularly, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of his party, against whom decisions were made by the judiciary and were disqualified.
“Whereas following the recent statement by chief judge of the Gilgit-Baltistan apex court Rana Shamim and the recent alleged leaked audio of former chief justice Saqib Nisar, have raised questions on the independence of the judiciary, and we believe this with a grieved heart that they need to restore their standing with their actions. They need to restore this confidence in them through their actions,” he added.
“Now it has become very difficult that the conspiracies revealed against an elected prime minister which were hatched in the past whether it is related to Nawaz Sharif or other people of his party as well as people of other political parties, was in fact, a conspiracy against the country not against an individual,” he further maintained.
“This was a conspiracy against the democratic system and the repercussion of which is faced by the people in the shape of unemployment, inflation and economic disaster,” he added.
Furthermore, he said that through the “controversial” legislation, an effort has been made to bring the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and it has been made a branch of the Fund.
“We are seeing these situations very seriously as the country’s economy is being mortgaged this way,” he further maintained.
Asked whether the PDM would approach the Supreme Court against the legislation made in the joint sitting, he said that the DPM would approach the court.
“But its [judiciary] position has been damaged in such situations when a confession was made from within the home. We are also looking into this,” he said, while referring to the alleged leaked audio of the former chief justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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