Pakistan’s opposition parties hold anti-government protest amid rising inflation

Activists from Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) gather to participate in an anti-government demonstration against inflation, unemployment and and other economic issues, in Karachi, Pakistan on October 22, 2021. (AFP)

• The Pakistan Democratic Movement alliance arranged protest demonstrations in Karachi, Lahore, Sukkar and Larkana
• The Pakistan People Party also highlighted the economic hardships of people in a separate rally in Karachi

KARACHI: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of opposition parties, on Friday held protest demonstrations against the government in Karachi and other major cities in the wake of the rising petroleum prices and spiraling inflation in the country.
The opposition alliance kicked off its 15-day nationwide protest from Rawalpindi on Wednesday to highlight the economic hardship of people.
Hundreds of PDM workers gathered at the Empress Market in Karachi where a senior leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam party (JUI-F), Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, led the protest.
Addressing the gathering, Haideri said the country had witnessed a sudden surge in prices during the last four months due to the “ineptitude of the rulers.”
“We will continue the protest till this selected government is dislodged,” Haideri said, adding the current administration had “mortgaged” the country to the International Monetary Fund.
The provincial president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shah Muhammad Shah and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan’s Owais Noorani also addressed the rally.
Workers of the opposition parties also held rallies in Lahore, Larkana, Sukkur, Mardan, Jacobabad, Mohmand, Ziarat, Mingora and other cities of the country.
In Balochistan, PDM workers suspended traffic at the Quetta-Chaman highway for several hours.
In Lahore, PML-N members staged a protest near Jain Mandir.
The Pakistan People Party, which quit the the alliance earlier this year over differences with the JUI-F and PML-N, separately held a protest in Malir district of Karachi on Friday.
The protest was led by Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah who criticized the federal government and said it should spare the poor masses.
“The prices of essential and basic food items have increased to such an extent that people have been forced to come onto the streets to protest against the defective socioeconomic policies of the selected ruler inducted in Islamabad,” Shah said in an oblique reference to Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“The hunger and helplessness have forced the people to come out into the streets to send the selected ruler back home,” he said. “This poor country cannot afford such a naïve, inefficient and ineffective prime minister.”