| Opposition Leader addresses PDM rally in Karachi | Says PM Imran Khan misleading people with lies | Fazl says while other nations continue to progress, Pakistan has only regressed

KARACHI   -  Opposition Leader in National Assembly and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday that a ‘torrential tide’ of the people will have to go to Islamabad to wipe out storm of inflation in the country. 

“We will go and bury this inflation and bury this government,” the PML-N leader said while addressing a public gathering at Karachi’s Bagh-e-Jinnah on Sunday. This was the first major rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement without PPP, which has parted ways with the alliance. 

Referring to the residence of PM Imran Khan, Shehbaz said that there can be no greater injustice than to sit in a 300-kanal house” in Bani Gala and “speak of Riyasat-e-Madina.” He said PM Imran Khan is “leading people astray with his lies “, adding that the premier travels from his home to his office “daily in a helicopter”.

“What would he know of the burdens of the poor man, who longs for even a single meal?” he asked. Shehbaz said that he is “not saying all this for the sake of making a speech”. “Perhaps the people of Karachi would not know, because the PML-N did not have a government here but I can tell you medicines and treatment were free in Punjab.”

He went on to say, “Laptops were distributed to students and education was made possible for low income families. Today they are doctors, engineers and are at high posts and are fully contributing in Pakistan’s prosperity,” he said. He went on to state that the PML-N may have made the first metro bus in 2012 “but it was Karachi that had the right to get it first”.

“It is the financial centre, contributes 68% revenue and like a mother is hosting people [from all over the country]. But it has been treated like a step-child.”

 Speaking of the addresses delivered by Baloch leaders before him, which centered around the province’s deprivations, Shehbaz said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his party will “stand by them to get them their economic, social and legal rights”.

 He recalled how “Imran Niazi” had visited Karachi in March 2019 and promised a Rs162 billion development package for Sindh, and especially Karachi. “And then, in 2020, when there was flooding due to heavy rains, Imran Niazi announced a Rs1,100 billion package again,” Shehbaz said.

The PML-N president said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told him that Sindh had agreed to contribute to the package, but the province has yet to see the funds released, with the exception of a “penny here and there”.

 Shehbaz said that the people are being “lulled into a false sense of security” with “false promises”.

The former Punjab chief minister recalled how between 2013 and 2018, violence and terror had gripped Karachi with bodies routinely being found in gunny sacks and extortion was rife. “Such an atmosphere of fear was prevalent that people began shifting their businesses to Punjab,” he said.

“But Nawaz Sharif (who was prime minister then) worked with institutions in the city, the provincial government and the businessmen, and developed a plan after which you saw the return of peace in Karachi and the families of businessmen returned.”Today extortion has been eradicated from Karachi,” Shehbaz said. Shehbaz also recalled “hours-long loadshedding, daily wagers returning home to no fans and living in mental anguish, no smoke coming out of industrial chimneys, businesses wrapping up and agricultural fields drying up out of resource deprivation”.

 He said it was in the PML-N era that for the “first time in Pakistan’s history”, power projects were installed that generated 1,100MW of electricity.

“Now Karachi’s lights once more shine bright, industries are working full throttle and livelihoods that were lost due to a shortage of power, have once more returned,” he added. “Now you all tell me, has sugar become cheaper? Has flour become cheaper? Has electricity become cheaper? Has gas become cheaper?” he asked, to loud chants of “No!”

 The Pakistan Democratic Movement, in its first power show in months on Sunday, at Karachi’s Bagh-e-Jinnah, declared its campaign is very much alive and the movement will “bury the government with a tide of people that will storm Islamabad”.

 PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the three-year performance of the PTI has revealed how the government has turned the state and the people “unsecure”.

 The PDM chief said that while other nations continue to progress, Pakistan “has only regressed”. “Of course, amid all this, we cannot sit quietly and idly by. We have sworn to raise Pakistan’s ranks among the great nations of the world,” he said.

Fazlur Rehman said that due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the COVID crisis, PDM’s activities had undoubtedly been impacted, and people began to criticise how the movement has become silent, “but this sea of people, your enthusiasm bears witness that you are alive, the PDM is alive, and we will continue our journey forward without being stopped”.

He said that the PDM reiterates that “this government is illegal”. “It has no mandate. It came into power through fake votes. They are seated in power with the use of force.

“We will combat them all, including those that support such imposed leaders upon us,” the PDM chief said.

Fazlur Rehman reiterated the movement’s stance that all governance must be in accordance with the Constitution, law and with the supremacy of parliament intact.

He said that annual growth target of 5.5% was given for the economy, which was raised to 6.5% for next year, “but this incompetent government dragged down the annual growth rate to below zero”.

“This point or two percent that you speak of, is nothing but lies,” he said to the government.

He said that in a household of five, when previously,” three would be employed and two unemployed, but now four are unemployed and only one employed”. Fazlur Rehman also decried soaring prices of essential commodities, saying that recently when he spoke to a doctor, who owns a medical centre, himself is unable to buy medicines for his treatment. “Was Pakistan made to serve such incompetent people?

“You must all rise and bring a revolution,” he declared.