KARACHI: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday staged a big rally against growing inflation in the country and announced that it would build a mom­entum from Karachi that would lead to the fall of the “imported government”.

A large number of PTI workers and supporters, including women and children, took out smaller rallies from different parts of the city to reach Liaquatabad, where the main rally turned into a protest demonstration.

Carrying placards, portraits of Imran Khan and party flags, the workers shouted slogans against the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led coalition government at the Centre for hatching “conspiracies against PTI leadership and totally ignoring the current economic crisis.

However, the protest rally caused a traffic mess on Shahrah-i-Pakistan and adjoining arteries since the Liaquatabad flyover and the road leading to Dakkhana flyover were closed for vehicular traffic.

Addressing the demonstration, party leaders vowed that the workers were ready for the court arrest in line with PTI’s countrywide campaign.

“The workers of Karachi aren’t afraid of arrests and they are ready for any sacrifice,” said PTI Karachi chapter president Aftab Siddiqi. “People of Karachi know that the so-called democratic parties are not their true representatives. This protest demonstration against inflation and imported government is just a reflection of people’s trust on PTI and Imran Khan.”

He said everyone witnessed how the “so-called champions of democracy” were creating hurdles so that the PTI could not emerge as the representative party of Karachi.

In a thinly veiled reference to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakis­tan, he said that the people of Karachi would reject all those who had failed them time and again.

Speaking on the occasion, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the “imported government” had destroyed the national economy and pushed the people to hunger and unemployment.

“This imported government has badly damaged the economy and now economic genocide of traders is being carried out,” he said. “In Karachi alone, 95pc factories of iron and steel have been closed, while several factories of shoe making, plastic products manufacturing, medicine, confectionery items and toys are on the verge of closing down.”

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023