PTI vows to form grand oppn alliance against PML-N govt
ISLAMABAD: Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the formation of a “grand opposition alliance” by expanding the existing platform, Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan, to act as a powerful anti-government movement, a senior party leader has said.
Former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, who addressed reporters alongside the party’s secretary-general Omar Ayub Khan outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail where Imran Khan is lodged since last August, said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to expand the opposition alliance in a meeting with Imran Khan on Thursday, Geo News reported.
Qaiser announced that the former ruling party would gather all opposition parties to run a powerful anti-government movement. He said that the party’s forthcoming power show in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi was aimed at raising a “strong voice” for the release of the PTI founder and other detained leaders.
“This country will only be governed in accordance with the law and the Constitution,” Qaiser emphasised.
During his address, Qaiser also rebuked the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led coalition government over skyrocketing power bills. However, JI Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has said that his party would not become part of the PTI proposed grand alliance as history suggests that the opposition parties use such platforms for self-interest.
“We will have the same stance as the opposition parties on some issues and hold meetings with them, but we will not become part of any alliance,” Naeem said on Thursday.
Ayub, while addressing the same press conference, appealed to the masses to attend the public gathering in Swabi on August 5 in large numbers from across the country to show solidarity with the former premier.
He further said that the ruling PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were trying to drive a wedge between the military and the nation.