Islamabad, Oct 19(UNI) Thousands of Opposition supporters hit the streets of Karachi pressing for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's resignation.
This was the second show of power by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 of the country's Opposition parties, Dawn News reported on Monday.
Khan was accused of conniving with the country's Army to rig the 2018 polls and grabbing power undemocratically. However, Khan, who came to power on an anti-graft platform has vehementally denied that the Pakistan Army in any way helped him come to power.
The PDM rally was held on Sunday evening at the Bagh-i-Jinnah, despite warnings by Mr Khan that he would get "tougher" and start making all-out efforts to bring his predecessor Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan to face corruption charges.
Sunday's rally coincided with the 13th anniversary of the October 18, 2007 attack on the homecoming procession of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi that killed more than 200 people and injured more than 500.
Addressing the rally Pakistan People's Party(PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, "Imran Khan should remember the past dictators. He should remember their life and fate. Your fate would not be different from them. You can never suppress people's voice for long. The people's anger would sweep away the government and its foundations".
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz recounted the "blunders, corruption and incompetence" of Khan's government.
She called Imran Khan a "coward", and accused him of using the army to save face and to hide his incompetence. She also accused him of using the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) to get at his political opponents.
The protests come as the country’s economy – which had already been badly hit before the global coronavirus pandemic – is now struggling with double digit inflation and negative growth, which Khan’s opponents blame on his government.
Khan’s two-year tenure has also seen mounting censorship and a crackdown on dissent, critics and opposition leaders.
The alliance held its first rally on 16 October in the city of Gujranwala, which too was attended by thousands of opposition supporters and was addressed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif via video conferencing from London, in which he accused the Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa of rigging the 2018 election and also orchestrating his ouster from power, when he refused to tow the army's line in 2017 on trumped up charges.
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