United opposition's power show in Peshawar met with swift resistance from nature

PESHAWAR: United opposition which were gathering at the venue in the city of Khyber PakhtunKhwa for what is expected to be a sizeable power show was met with some resistance from mother nature, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Strong and gusty winds which reportedly had taken form of a small typhoon uprooted the tents and proved to be a hindrance in the arrangements made for the gathering later in the day.

Iron pegs hammered into the ground to hold the tents firmly in their place were uprooted with force with the entire settlement literally going up in the air.

Party workers of various political affiliates rushed to safety as the inclement weather took its toll.

After things quieted down a little, individual headed back to the site of the power show today and are currently struggling to get the stage and tents set up.

Earlier, The opposition’s All Parties Conference (APC) June 26 saw disagreement and disarray among its ranks when the members reportedly discouraged demands of collective resignation from the National Assembly.

The Harbinger of the APC, Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman took centre stage after the prolonged meeting and announced pointers agreed upon by the political parties involved.

The Maulana said: “The Federal Budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 is declared anti-people and would be opposed in unison by all political parties attending today’s meeting.”

“The attendees have agreed upon the demand for releasing production orders of members of National Assembly, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar for parliamentary appearances.”

Maulana further revealed that the APC had agreed on demanding the quick release of those abducted by the security agencies on the pretext of terrorism or producing them before the courts for a proper trial.

Fazal revealed that the leaders of the opposition were in firm agreement for holding up the sanctity and dignity of the 18th constitutional amendment and those opposing it will be met with stiff competition from the political parties.

He further entailed that the newly formed ‘debt probe commission’ was unconstitutional and illegal and was collectively rejected by the political parties in attendance.

The APC also demanded the formation of a parliamentary commission over Waziristan to probe the current situation on the ground in the region.

Fazal Ur Rehman announced a concerted campaign to create awareness and involve the people of Pakistan over the current government’s incompetence and shortcomings.

The opposition leaders gathered at the Jamiat Ulema Islam Fazal (JUI-F) chief’s call to devise a mechanism to further protests and initiation of a possible street agitation against the current government and its policies was met with stiff dissent from among their ranks with the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) airing reservations over the call.

JUI-F, Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtun Khwa -MAP (PK-MAP) were in favour of the decision to resign.

JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman was the one who came up with the idea of collective resignations.

The Major political players said that they were deliberating upon the option to resign but would only consider it as the last resort.

The APC also discussed plans to ask the current Chairman Senate and Deputy Chairman Senate to resign from their positions.

A possibility of the Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla’s resignation being presented was discussed as the first plan of action.

The opposition parties agreed on a concerted effort and campaign against the government although the Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has not yet shown interest towards the approach, sources said.

Other parties present have been trying to get the PPP chairman on board for the anti-government campaign idea which has met with failure thus far.

PPP and PML-N were observed charting out plans to first protest outside and within the National Assembly against the present Federal Government.

In conclusion, he announced country-wide observation of ‘black day’ on July 25 over discrepancies and rigging in General Elections of 2018.