ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 major political parties, kicked off its massive fourth public rally in northwestern Peshawar city on Sunday, after defying a government ban on mass gatherings to curb the spread of a second coronavirus wave gripping the country.
Thronged by people on stage, many without face masks, the Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto began his speech by praising the sacrifices of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the face of militancy. He went on to say Imran Khan’s government would be “going home” after January next year.
Bhutto’s speech was momentarily interrupted by a tearful Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, who said she had just received news of her grandmother’s death in London and requested the crowds gathered there to pray for the departed.
Nawaz subsequently left the rally, local media reported.
PDM chief Fazlur Rehman also addressed the rally and said the opposition had great respect for the armed forces as a defence institution.
“But if it tries to become a political institution, then we have every right to criticise it,” Rehman said.
He went on to criticize the handling of Pakistan’s foreign relations during Khan’s government, which came to power in 2018.
Earlier, the provincial government issued a warning to the opposition alliance, and said it could lodge legal cases against them if a spike in virus cases was witnessed in the province in the days following the rally.
According to officials, there has been a 200 percent increase in COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators-- widely considered the last stage of the disease-- in the last two weeks in Peshawar. Nearly 60 people reportedly died in Pakistan in the past 24 hours.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and members of his cabinet have since Saturday condemned the opposition parties’ decision to go ahead with the demonstration-- part of a nationwide campaign to oust Khan’s government.
On Sunday, Khan took to Twitter to say PDM was “callously” endangering people’s lives in the country and would be responsible for the health consequences of their gathering in case the country was compelled to go into complete lockdown.
“Opposition is callously destroying people"s lives & livelihoods in their desperation to get an NRO. Let me make it clear: they can hold a million jalsas but will not get any NRO,” the PM tweeted.
"If cases continue to rise at the rate we are seeing, we will be compelled to go into complete lockdown and the PDM will be responsible for consequences," he tweeted separately.
On Saturday, the PDM said it had made it mandatory for all attendees to wear face masks.
“We are holding the rally but no participant will be allowed to enter without wearing masks,” Muhammad Zubair, spokesperson for Pakistan Muslim League- N leader Nawaz Sharif, told Arab News on Saturday.
But television coverage of the rally on Sunday showed few people in the sea of tens of thousands in attendance, wearing face masks.
A handout issued by northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province’s health department earlier said an average hike of 12 percent was witnessed in COVID-19 cases in the province in the last three days.
