ISLAMABAD: President of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Maulana Fazlur Rehman has convened a crucial meeting of heads of the alliance’s constituent parties in Islamabad on Nov 8 to review the prevailing political situation in the country in the wake of allegations of treason and devise a strategy for the upcoming three public meetings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab.

Sources told Dawn that the supreme leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would also address the participants of the meeting through a video link from London. The PML-N is also the host of the PDM meeting which will be held at the party’s secretariat in Islamabad.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will participate in the meeting via a video link from Gilgit-Baltistan where he has been staying to lead his party’s campaign for the polls in the region.

PPP criticises PM’s recent remarks about judiciary

Talking to Dawn, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, who is the official spokesman for the PPP chairman, said Mr Bhutto-Zardari had extended his stay in GB and now he would stay there till the polling day on November 15. He confirmed that the PPP chairman would address the PDM meeting and arrangements for the video link were being finalised.

The PDM, which has already held public meetings in Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta, is now scheduled to hold its fourth public meeting in Peshawar on Nov 22, fifth in Multan on Nov 30 and the last one in Lahore on Dec 13.

The PDM leaders claim that the Dec 13 Lahore public meeting will be “biggest gathering” in the country’s history after which the present “set-up” will no more be able to stand against wishes of the people of the country. The PDM has already given the call for a long march to Islamabad in January next year to seek resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who heads his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), has also convened a meeting of his party’s Central Majlis-i-Shoora in Islamabad on Nov 10.

Meanwhile, the PPP criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent remarks about the judiciary and accused him of committing a “predetermined contempt of court”.

“The opposition is not and cannot promote a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as there is a set procedure for promotion of judges based on their respective seniority,” said member of the PPP’s Core Committee Taj Haider in a statement here on Monday.

He said it was the government which with “mala fide intentions” duly noted by the Supreme Court in its Oct 23 judgment had through concocted charges tried to oust a highly respected judge.

Mr Haider issued the statement a day after the prime minister lambasted the opposition parties for what he said “attacking the state institutions” and “promoting the enemies’ narrative”, saying that those who wanted to “discredit the army and the judiciary” were speaking “the language of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi”.

Addressing the Azadi Parade ceremony in connection with the 73rd Independence Day of Gilgit-Baltistan in Gilgit on Sunday, the prime minister had stated that “the way in which they (the opposition parties) attacked the judiciary, they are trying to elevate one judge”. Mr Khan said if those who had “fled abroad” were cleared in corruption cases, “then [they find] the judiciary is independent, but when verdicts are issued against them, [they allege] the judiciary is wrong”.

In the same speech, Mr Khan had declared that now his focus would be on rule of law, saying that “I will oversee the state institutions myself so that powerful convicts of the country trying to blackmail [the government] are brought into the ambit of the law”.

Taj Haider said the “selected prime minister” in a thoughtless outburst of sentiments had exposed and proved his mala fide against the said judge once again in his speech in Gilgit.

“It should be noted that the selected prime minister in his Gilgit speech, while attacking the opposition and offering incentives to voters was committing defiant violation of the code of conduct of Gilgit-Baltistan elections and electoral laws,” he alleged.

“What an irony that a habitual law-breaker has the cheek to continue his tirade against a highly respected judge of the Supreme Court. What was this outburst if not a predetermined contempt of court?” he asked.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2020