KARACHI: A large number of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers took out a rally on Friday in preparation for Feb 27 ‘Long March’ from Karachi to Islamabad, where the “biggest ever protest march in the country’s history will lead to the end of unjust rule of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government and herald a new beginning for Pakistan”.

Riding on motorbikes, cars and other modes of transportation, the PPP activists began their journey from Bilawal House in Clifton and drove through different roads and busy Saddar streets to culminate at Mazar-i-Quaid, where the party leaders addressed a charged gathering of workers.

Dancing on the tunes of party songs and chanting slogans against the PTI government, the workers took more than two hours to complete the journey and called it just a ‘trailer’ of the upcoming ‘massive public movement’ being launched against Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government.

Led by PPP Sindh president Nisar Khuhro, Sindh Information Minister and PPP Karachi president Saeed Ghani, PPP Sindh secretary Waqar Mehdi and other leaders, the rally was described as a move to mobilise party workers across Karachi who would play a key role in success of the long march.

“The PPP has proved it never does politics for vested interests,” said Mr Ghani while addressing the rally.

“This massive public movement is in fact a reflection of public sentiments against the selected government of Imran Khan which has made lives of the common man miserable. The people are so fed up with them that they cannot tolerate this unjust government for a day any more. The economy has collapsed and the country is facing isolation on diplomatic front. It’s now a matter of survival of a common and the country.”

Mr Khuhro said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was clear from the very first day that the PTI had come to power through illegal and stolen majority, but he decided to become part of the parliament only to keep the democratic process running.

“Now again he has decided to exercise the legal and democratic right through protest and lead the public sentiment against the PTI government which would face downfall as a result of this movement,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2022