File photo of PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Ayub Khan on Sunday claimed the “grand opposition alliance” of six parties is seeking to add more political forces to its ranks to boost its chances of ousting the incumbent government led by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
Addressing a press conference in Quetta a day after the alliance launched its protest movement from Pishin, Khan said the PTI planned to contact labor organizations and other segments of society in addition to political parties to support its aims. “We have already contacted political parties,” he claimed, maintaining the first public meeting of the alliance in Pishin was “very successful.” Independent observers, pointing out that the rally on Saturday was not substantive enough to concern the incumbent government, have rebutted this.
During his press talk, Khan reiterated the PTI’s claims of the incumbent governments at the center and in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh being products of “rigged” elections, adding they would not remain in power for very long. His stance, however, appears to differ from that of the head of the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen Pakistan (TTAP) alliance. In his speech at Pishin, Mahmood Khan Achakzai said the movement was not aimed at ousting any government, but rather ensuring the due rights of the public.
Khan said that PkMAP Chairman Achakzai was nominated the alliance’s president with consensus of the leadership of all parties. He said the movement had launched from Balochistan but would soon proceed to the rest of the country and seek to muster support for its campaign against the coalition government.
According to Khan, PTI founder Imran Khan had brought political awareness to the people, who had voted for the party in the Feb. 8 general elections. He also reiterated predictions of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, being freed from incarceration “soon.”
Conspiracy against country
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, meanwhile, accused the opposition alliance of conspiring against the country over allegations of poll rigging. Addressing a public gathering at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in Larkana on Sunday, he said some politicians wanted to launch a “PNA-II,” referring to the opposition alliance of 1977 that failed to secure a majority in the elections.
Without directly naming Imran Khan, Bhutto-Zardari regretted that some politicians played with the fate of the country and its people for the sake of “personal egos.” In this regard, he claimed, they were conspiring “against the country and its economy” through a protest movement.
Calling for “national reconciliation” to steer the country out of prevailing crises, the former foreign minister said the country cannot progress if “politics of abuses” persist. He urged politicians to stay in their ambit prescribed in the Constitution. If they don’t, he warned, and democracy is derailed, the biggest victims would be the masses. “Politicians utmost priority should be steering the country out of crisis,” he maintained.