Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman on Tuesday announced the schedule for the proposed long march against the government.
The long march – led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari – will start from Karachi and will reach the capital in 10 days after passing through 34 cities.
According to the schedule, the long march will start from the Quaid’s mausoleum in Karachi on February 27 at 10am.
It would first reach Badin via Thatta and Sujawal. On February 28, the march would pass through Hyderabad and Halla before reaching Moro. The convoy will arrive in Khairpur on Tuesday (March 1) and will stay in Sukkur overnight.
On March 2, the long march will leave Sukkhur to reach Rahim Yar Khan via Ghotki. The march will make a stopover in Multan on March 3 after passing through Bahawalpur and Lodhran. A large public gathering will also be held in Multan. The caravan will reach Khanewal on Friday (March 4). It will pass through Chichawatni, Sahiwal, Okara and Pattoki on March 5.
The long march will enter Lahore on March 6 where the PPP chairman will address a gathering at Nasser Bagh. The caravan will then move ahead from Nasser Bagh in Lahore to Sheranwala Bagh in Gujranwala where Bilawal will address a mega rally again.
The march will temporarily retire in Wazirabad on March 6.
It would then resume the journey and will reach Lalamusa on March 7 before reaching Rawalpindi on March 8 after passing through Jhelum and Gujar Khan. The same day, the march will reach its final destination – Islamabad.
Separately, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan should worry about the country’s deteriorating economy rather than the opposition’s meetings (with government’s allies).
Talking to journalists in Lahore, the PML-N president said that the country’s economic situation has never been this worse before.
“Throughout the history of the country, inflation has never been as high as it is now,” he said, adding that no other government in the past had accepted such huge amounts of international loans.
Upon being asked by a journalist if the prime minister was worried about PML-N’s political meetings, Shahbaz replied: “The prime minister should focus on the country’s inflation rate, unemployment and the catastrophic situation of the economy.”
He also criticised sugar and wheat scams, saying that “corruption worth billions of rupees is being done under the nose of the government.”
Meanwhile, Jamia Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has rebuffed the idea of replacing country’s current parliamentary system with a presidential form of government, saying that such insinuations are against the constitution of the country.
“[The] presidential form of government is a symbol of war and dictatorship… no one can impose authoritarian rule in the country and only people have the right to elect their representatives,” he said while addressing a rally in Layyah, a small city in Punjab, on Tuesday.
Fazl while recalling the past stints said that country suffered a lot under the “presidential governments” led by military rulers.
He said those who were speaking in favour of the presidential system were violating the sanctity of the constitution and added that such ideas were against the country’s national interest.
Fazl said the Objective Resolution was made part of the constitution and people belonging to all schools of thought are abiding by the existing system.
The JUI-F chief said the real issue was not the system of the country but non-implementation of the constitution. “[The] establishment is involved in power politics and subsequently politicians also become part of this,” he remarked, implying that the country’s democratic system was not fully independent.
