PESHAWAR: Putting up a defiant posture, the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has said it will hold a public meeting in Peshawar on Sunday if the government doesn’t resign forthwith.

“The government is using various tactics including removal of banners and billboards of the opposition parties in an attempt to foil our show,” spokesman for the 11 parties alliance Abdul Jalil Jan told reporters here on Thursday.

He said the district administration had yet to issue no objection certificate to the PDM for organising the rally on Ring Road.

He said the government had also warned registration of cases against the opposition on the pretext of SOP violation.

There is uncertainty about the participation of MNA Mohsin Dawar in the rally following his alleged face-off with PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman during a meeting in Islamabad.

“I have not received any invitation as yet to attend the Peshawar rally,” said Mohsin Dawar, who declined to comment on his verbal clash with Mr Fazl.

“I will not comment on this issue until the PDM issues clarification of the media reports,” MNA Dawar, who is key leader of Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement, told Dawn by phone.

The government had stopped Mr Dawar at the Quetta airport from addressing the rally there.

An insider told Dawn that the component parties had decided in principle that Mohsin Dawar would not be invited to the PDM public meeting.

The provincial government had announced on Wednesday that the Peshawar district administration wouldn’t allow the opposition parties to hold a rally in light of a spike in the Covid-19 positivity rate in the province.

The government has decided that cases would be registered against the organisers of the rally for violating the law.

Unlike Gujranwala and Karachi, the united opposition is jointly hosting the rally in Peshawar.

Senator Rubina Khalid of PPP, Ikhtiar Wali of the PML-N, Hamid Tofan of the ANP and leaders of other PDM component parties attended the briefing and shared details about the Peshawar rally.

Leaders of the PDM said SOPs would be followed and social distancing and provision of masks to participants would be ensured. They said the government should not worry about the health of the people.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan is more dangerous than Covid-19 and the sooner this incompetent and incapable government resigns the more beneficial it will be for the country,” said Senator Rubina.

She said the Peshawar rally would prove a referendum against the government. The PPP leader said free and fair elections under the present government were impossible.

PML-N information secretary Ikhtiar Wali said Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed public meetings in Gilgit-Baltistan and Swat, while Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also violated Covid-19 SOPs in Mohmand and Bajaur tribal districts.

“Whenever the PDM plans rallies, the government begins talking about Covid-19,” he said, adding that the country was passing through crises and opposition parties couldn’t stay silent in the situation.

Mr Wali said the PDM parties had completed preparations for the rally in Peshawar and the government would witness a sea of people on Sunday.

He said the government was using state machinery to stop people from participating in the rally.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2020