ISLAMABAD: An alliance of 11 opposition parties holding countrywide protests demanding that the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan step down has announced that it is postponing a planned ‘long march’ to the capital, the president of the movement, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, said on Tuesday.

The announcement by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) comes amid reported reservations by the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to resign from assemblies, which Rehman has said is a precondition to launch the protest march to Islamabad. 

“Nine parties were in favor of resignations along with a long march but PPP had reservations,” Rehman told reporters, adding that the PPP would discuss the matter during the party’s upcoming central executive committee meeting.

“We will wait for their decision,” he said, adding: “March 26 long march should be considered postponed.”

In a meeting earlier in the day, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, three time prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, who is living in self-exile in London, should return to Pakistan before the joint opposition resigned from the assemblies in order to mount pressure on the government of PM Khan. 

Nawaz, who was serving a prison sentence over corrupt practices, has been living in London since November 2019 after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment by a top court. 

Last month, the PDM had announced a long march on March 26 against the PM Khan-led government.