Pakistan’s Opposition plan to challenge Army – Burning Issues – Free PDF

All Party Conference

•  On September 20, an All Parties Conference (APC) was held in Pakistan.
•  It was hosted by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
•  Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and several other Opposition parties attended this conference

Pakistan Democratic Movement

•  At a joint press conference after the end of the multi-party meeting, JUI-F chief read out the 26 point resolution .
• He said that the Opposition parties have agreed to launch an alliance named Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
• Aim of this Movement is to organise countrywide protests against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government from October.

Phases in Movement

• According to the resolution, the protests would start in phases.
• In the first phase, the Opposition parties will hold joint rallies in all four provinces in October.
•  The second phase will begin in December during which the Opposition will hold huge rallies across the country.
•  Finally, a “decisive” long march towards Islamabad would start in January next year to oust the government.

Resolution

• The resolution alleged that the Khan government has been granted fake stability by the Army.
• Resolution also said that Army interfered with the elections to bring the incumbent rulers to power.
• The resolution expressed “extreme concern” over the increasing interference of the Army in the internal affairs of the country.

Non Cooperation Movement

• Resolution termed the Parliament a “rubber stamp”.
• PDM declared that the opposition will not cooperate with the government in the legislative process.
• In order to oust the government, opposition parties will use every legal and constitutional option in and out of parliament which include collective resignations from assemblies at an appropriate time.

Nawaz Sharif

• Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also addressed the multi-party conference through a video link from London.
• He said the struggle of the Opposition parties was not against Mr. Khan but against those who brought an “inefficient” man to power.
• Mr. Sharif staged a political comeback by criticizing the country’s powerful military establishment for allegedly supporting Mr. Khan.

State above a State

•  Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has clearly signalled his intention to take head on the military dictated and dominated ‘hybrid democracy’ model.
• This is the first time any political leader has launched such an open, frontal assault on the Pakistani military.
• Sharif said that Pakistani Army’s role had gone from being ‘state within a state’ to ‘state above a state’
• He was Referring to a speech by former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani who had in 2011 declared that “there cannot be a state within the state”
•  Nawaz Sharif said things had become worse since then and now there was a “state above the state”, which is at the root of all Pakistan’s problems.

Sharif Brothers

•  There is some talk that Nawaz Sharif’s speech is part of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) playbook .
•  In this book Nawaz Sharif plays the bad-cop, while his younger brother and the president of the party, Shahbaz Sharif, plays good-cop.
• The way this works is that after Nawaz breathes fire and shakes up the ‘establishment’ and Shahbaz reaches out to the government and makes the deal.
•  Do you think the fighting words will translate into actual fighting and a protest? Or will everything just fizzle out in a few days and Pakistani politicians will go back to doing what they do best: appease and propitiate the military?

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