Tag: Pakistan Democratic Movement

  • Army needs to distance itself from PTI, says retired general

    Army needs to distance itself from PTI, says retired general

    Defence analyst Lt Gen (r) Ghulam Mustafa has urged the Pakistan Army to distance itself from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in order to kill the impression that the ruling party has the support of the military.

    In a TV show, the analyst said the impression that the army has gotten PTI’s back needs to be defused as it is damaging the reputation of the state institution.

    Mustafa said the opposition, however, was being unfair for claiming that the army was supporting the ruling PTI. He said the military stood by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in 2014 during the protests led by Imran Khan, but nobody accused it of “supporting the Nawaz-led government”.

    He said the army chief needed to take measures to take his force out of the tug of war between the political parties, as the current situation was rapidly heading towards disaster.

    The defence analyst’s comments came in the wake of countrywide protests by the joint opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

    During its first rally in Gujranwala on Oct 18, former prime minister and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif hit out at the security establishment for ousting his government and installing Imran Khan in power. This was the first time that the opposition named a sitting army chief for meddling in the elections.

    Nawaz addressed the crowd via video link from London. “Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country at the alter of your wishes,” the former PM added.

  • Video shows two cops breaking into Safdar’s hotel room

    A video footage of the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar has surfaced, which shows two Sindh police officials breaking into the lawmaker’s room.

    The footage acquired by Geo News showed that Safdar was detained by the officials of the Sindh police from his hotel room at 6:45am.

    As per the video, two police vans entered the hotel premises at 6:08am and it took the cops approximately 35 minutes to detain the lawmaker from his room on the 15th floor. In the video, a plainclothed man can be seen taking instruction on phone, while another is busy in making a video of the arrested MNA.

    The video was also tweeted by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who is the spouse of Safdar. She wrote that the video reflected that a ‘state above state’ existed in Pakistan.

    Safdar was arrested from his hotel room in the early hours of Monday from his hotel room for raising slogans at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and jumping over the grill surrounding the grave. The Sindh government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had distanced itself from the matter soon after the arrest.

    Afterwards, the Sindh police tweeted that the arrest was lawful, but the tweet was deleted soon after it was put up. But after a few hours, the tweet was updated again, wherein the police said that Safdar was arrested as per law.

    Amid reports that the Sindh Rangers took IGP Mushtaq Mahar hostage to get Safdar arrested, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) asked army general Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to launch a institutional probe into the incident. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that every police officer in Sindh, from a station house officer to senior police officers, were wondering who had “surrounded IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar’s office at 2am on Sunday night”, asking Gen Bajwa to take notice.

    Subsequently, the military’s media wing tweeted that Gen Bajwa has ordered a probe into the episode. According to a statement shared by the ISPR, Gen Bajwa directed the Karachi Corps commander to “immediately inquire into the circumstances to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible”

  • ‘Rangers kidnapped Sindh IG at 4 am to get Capt (r) Safdar arrested’

    Senior journalist and analyst Hamid Mir has claimed the Sindh government informed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Muhammad Zubair that the provincial police chief had been “kidnapped by rangers at 4 am and forced to issue the orders for the arrest of Maryam Nawaz’s husband, Captain (r) Safdar”.

    Earlier in the day, Karachi police arrested Capt (r) Safdar for violating the sanctity of Jinnah Mausoleum by raising slogans at the grave of the founder of Pakistan. The development was shared by his wife and PML-N vice president, Maryam, who tweeted that police broke into her room to arrest Capt (r) Safdar.

    “Unfortunate incident. Sindh Govt informed PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair that IG [insector general] Sindh was kidnapped by Rangers at 4 in the morning he was brought in sector commander’s office where addnl IG was already present and were forced to issue the orders for the arrest of Cpt Rtd Safdar [sic],” Mir claimed in a tweet.

    It was, however, rejected by another senior journalist, who said the IG was “fully onboard with the arrest”.

    Maintaining that internal rifts were marring the affairs of the joint opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Kamran Khan quoted sources as saying that all claims regarding the IG’s arrest were not true.

    The tweets come as condemnations pour in against Safdar’s arrest that is being termed “inappropriate” while some, on the other hand, laud the authorities for the same.

    People had earlier also been criticising the Sindh government of joint opposition’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for backstabbing the PML-N a day after the mammoth anti-government rally of the PDM in Karachi.

  • Joint opposition in Gujranwala: Hit or flop?

    Joint opposition in Gujranwala: Hit or flop?

    The first rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) turned out to be “resounding success” for the joint opposition that claimed over 50,000 people took to streets against the government on Friday.

    The gathering held in Gujranwala — the stronghold of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — was attended by the PML-N workers in thousands, followed by the members the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), who made their presence felt.

    The flags belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), National Party (NP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) dotted the venue; however, their participation paled compared to the three aforementioned major parties.

    By 6 pm, the venue was jam-packed and the tailback affected all the roads leading to Jinnah Stadium — a fact that corroborates the opposition’s claims.

    The day, however, belonged to the PML-N, whose supporters thronged the venue in thousands to record their protest against the government. Maryam Nawaz led a massive rally from Lahore to the city, where all national and provincial seats are held by her party, and her father Nawaz Sharif made a hard-hitting speech that showed he was in no mood for reconciliation.

    The PPP also managed to rally its supporters who followed their chairperson Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari to Gujranwala from Lala Musa in a caravan, whereas Maulana Fazlur Rehman, with his white and black JUI-F flags, entered the venue with a bang.

    But the government downplayed the PDM jalsa, as its ministers pointed out lack of coordination among the opposition parties and also claimed that the number of the participants was no more than 18,000, as per Radio Pakistan.

    COVID-19 GUIDELINES FLOUTED:

    The massive gathering also blatantly flouted the anti-coronavirus measures, especially at a time when the second wave is in the offing. It is understandable that social distancing was not possible in a small stadium, but face masks — an effective precautionary measure — were also conveniently ignored.

    Out of the party leaders, only some were covering their faces, but they too removed them once they started addressing the gathering. PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz and JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman and his party leaders did not wear masks at all.

    As for the crowd, a negligent number of people bothered to wear face masks as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.

    In a comment on the state of anti-coronavirus measures at the venue, a Dawn report said, “It was both sad and comical to watch the policemen insisting that people [who were not wearing masks] enter the stadium via the so-called senitising gates that were fitted with sprinklers spraying some kind of miracle water on those who walked through.”

  • Info minister Shibli Faraz shares ‘father’s poetry’, is told it is not Ahmad Faraz but Ghalib’s ghazal

    Info minister Shibli Faraz shares ‘father’s poetry’, is told it is not Ahmad Faraz but Ghalib’s ghazal

    In a rather embarrassing development, Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz on Friday had to delete a tweet criticising the opposition after he was told that the poetry he had shared as that of his father, Ahmad Faraz, was actually a ghazal by Mirza Ghalib.

    “Jiski bahaar yeh ho uski khizaa naa pooch [don’t ask about the autumn of whose spring is this],” the minister said in the deleted tweet aimed at mocking the joint opposition for what the government called was “an empty stadium” in Gujranwala during the maiden public gathering of the opposition parties’ anti-government campaign.

    The tweet was deleted after journalist and Geo News Managing Director Azhar Abbas told him that the phrase the minister had attributed to his father and late poet Ahmad Faraz was actually from a ghazal by classical Urdu poet from the 19th Century, Mirza Ghalib.

    “I think it’s Ghalib’s not Ahmad Faraz’s,” Abbas tweeted.

    Shibli Faraz, who is serving as the federal minister for information and broadcasting since April 28, 2020, is a member of the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) since 2015. He is the son of the late renowned poet Ahmad Faraz, who was displaced by dictators for also being a vocal critic of military rule.

  • VIDEO: Nawaz distances himself from Khawaja Asif’s remarks, says he does trust Zardari

    Deposed prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has reiterated his trust in Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari after stalwart Khawaja Asif attacked the former president saying he could not be trusted.

    “I have a lot of respect for Asif Zardari in my heart. Zardari is part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and I absolutely respect him in my heart and I don’t know if Khawaja Asif made a statement against Zardari or not,” the PML-N supreme leader told The News.

    When told that Khawaja Asif had actually said that he doesn’t trust Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz said that his party leader’s remarks about the former president were not PML-N’s party policy. “I have expressed to you the sentiments I have in my heart.”

    Earlier, Asif had cast shadows of doubts on opposition parties’ newly formed alliance, the PDM.

    “It is difficult for me to trust him [Zardari] even today,” he said in a private news channel talk show.

    The PML-N leader said that he still has qualms about Zardari and his opinion of the former president has not changed.