Thousands of opposition supporters held mass rally in Pakistan
In the city of Karachi, defying coronavirus restriction tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied on Sunday as a part of campaign to demand step down of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they accuse of being installed by the military in a rigged 2018 election and renew criticism over the role of military in politics.
Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of 11 opposition parties demonstrated on Sunday in the central city of Lahore, in the culmination of the first phase of protests before a planned march on the capital of Islamabad in January to put more and more pressure on Khan’s government.
“You’ve snatched jobs from people. You have snatched two-times a day food from the people,” said opposition leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of the former three-times premier Nawaz Sharif. During rally on Sunday, she shared the platform with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose late mother Benazir Bhutto was also a former two-times prime minister of Pakistan. “Our farmers have hunger in their homes...our youth is disappointed,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, whose Pakistan People’s party governs the southern city of Karachi.
The major reason for protests is country’s economy, which has already descended even before the global Coronavirus pandemic. “Inflation has broken the back of poor citizens forcing many to beg to feed their children. Its high time that this government should go now. Go Imran go!” said Faqeer Baloch, 63-year-old civilian who stood with the rally.
The three-time Prime Minister has already spent two year tenure and the next general election is scheduled for 2023. Khan was forced by the Supreme Court to oust over corruption allegations in 2017 and was convicted and a year later sentenced to prison term, just days ahead of the general election won by Imran Khan.
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