Staff Reporters
Islamabad/ Lahore / Quetta / Karachi
The opposition fired a broadside at the incumbent government as rallies were staged across the country on Thursday to observe Youm-e-Siah (black day) to mark a year of the 2018 elections.
Leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) held rallies all over Pakistan.
Addressing a rally in Peshawar, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said that the opposition has become ‘Great Wall of China’ in an effort to save the Constitution from the government.
He slammed the government’s economic policies saying that the growth rate during the PML-N tenure was 3.5% which has now reduced to 3%.
Iqbal stressed that businesses were shutting down increasing unemployment in the country. He maintained that Nawaz brought the country out of the time when there were bomb blasts on a daily basis. The PML-N leader further said that the government had backtracked from all its promises. In a similar vein, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan called the incumbent government selected.
“No matter how many times the National Assembly speaker restricts us calling it a selected government we will call it what it is,” he said.
Responding to allegations of him possessing undeclared overseas assets, the ANP chief said that he should be prosecuted if anything is proven against him. He reiterated that stability in Afghanistan will bring peace in Pakistan. Asfandyar said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have indeed brought change in the country only not for the good.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also supported Asfandyar’s statement saying that Imran Khan was not the country’s leader. “We [opposition] need to get the country out of the current economic crisis,” he added.
Speaking to the media, alongside PPP leader Khursheed Shah, Sadiq said that the opposition parties were not afraid of prisons. “We will go to jail to save democracy, but we will not change our loyalties,” lamented the former NA speaker. Talking about media blackout, Sadiq said PM Imran Khan lied about it on his visit to the United States.
Imran faced backlash in Pakistan from the opposition after he, in his meeting with US President Donald Trump, said that there have been no curbs on media houses.
