Former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Parvez Elahi said that on Saturday now that people were on the streets, the peoples’ caravan could not be stopped.
He was speaking after meeting with a Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) delegation headed by Khurrum Nawaz Gandapur.
Elahi said “we support the Awami Tehrik’s position… and government’s failures are apparent to everybody”. Elahi said history will be made at the D-Chowk meeting. He said his party supported Imran Khan in his protest against electoral rigging.
Elahi said Kamil Ali Agha in Lahore, Muhammad Basharat Raja in Rawalpindi, Chaudhary Zaheeruddin Khan in Faisalabad, Tariq Bashir Cheema in Bahawalpur and Aamir Sultan Cheema in Sargodha would represent the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid at the demonstrations. He said a grand opposition alliance might be formed.
He said the government had squandered 11 months issuing advertisements praising itself and memorandums of understanding when they should have been working for citizens’ welfare. He said the so-called economic improvement was mere propaganda.
Gandapur said there was no defence for a government that took power by faking a mandate.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2014.