Opposition to flex muscles at PPP-hosted rally in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh today

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is all set to host the opposition today (Sunday) at its public gathering at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, commemorating the 13th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) - as part of the second phase of its anti-government campaign - would reach the mausoleum of the former premier from Naudero to address the crowd. All arrangements for the rally had been completed as people from all over the country continued to reach the venue. Caravans led by PPP leaders from all the districts of Sindh, including Karachi, were also en-route. Due to ill health, former president Asif Ali Zardari is likely to address the rally via video link. While Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz will be attending the rally on PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto's invitation, chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazl (JUI-F) and head of the PDM Maulana Fazlur Rehman was said to have declined the invitation. On December 24, Zardari invited Fazl to attend the rally. However, on December 26, Fazal declined to attend it. JUI-F senior leader Maulana Rashid Mahmood confirmed the development and said a five-member delegation of party leaders would attend the rally in place of the JUI-F chief. The delegation would include JUI-F Central Secretary-General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Siraj Ahmed Khan, Abdul Razzaq Abid Lakho, Saud Afzal Jalijo and Maulana Abdullah Mehr. Fazal’s refusal to attend the rally came at a time when the JUI-F was facing internal turmoil following the expulsion of its four senior members for “deviating from the party policy” and for “creating party within the party”. As for Maryam Nawaz, the PML-N leader – along with a nine-member PML-N delegation- reached the Bhutto house in Naudero yesterday (Saturday) where she was received by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asifa Bhutto, Faryal Talpur and Sherry Rehman. Among the PML-N’s delegation were Captain (retd) Safdar Awan, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pervez Rashid, Muhammad Zubair and Miftah Ismail, Shah Muhammad Shah, Sania Ashiq and Musadik Masood Malik. According to Express, the PPP would host a dinner in honour of the PDM leaders at Bhutto House in Naudero after the rally, whereas a luncheon would also be hosted tomorrow on December 28. The PML-N’s vice president also addressed a PML-N workers’ convention in Sukkur a day before wherein she hit back at Prime Minister Imran Khan for claiming that opposition parties were pressuring military establishment into toppling his ‘elected government’. “First you need to keep this thing in your mind that your government is not elected. Secondly, opposition parties do not need to ask the army to overthrow your government,” she said. “We don’t need to ask anyone. We have the power of people [to remove you].”

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