Tens of Thousands Rally in Karachi against Imran Khan

In Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered on Sunday as part of a movement to overthrow Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they accuse of being elected by the military in a rigged election two years ago.

The mass protest in Karachi was the second in three days initiated by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to launch a nationwide agitation against the government by nine major opposition parties last month, reports Reuters.

Under Khan, Pakistan has undergone growing media censorship and a crackdown on criticism, opponents and opposition. Even before the global coronavirus pandemic struck, however, the campaign against him sought to tap into discontent over his handling of the economy, which was tanking.

“You’ve snatched jobs from people. You have snatched two-time a day food from the people,” Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of the former three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, told the rally.

Police snatched her husband in the early hours of Monday, arresting Muhammad Safdar following allegations by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) group that he had raised political slogans at the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, an action considered unconstitutional.

"Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt. Safdar,” Nawaz tweeted on Monday morning. A spokesman of the provincial government said police had not acted on their orders.

During Sunday’s rally, she had shared the platform with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose late mother Benazir Bhutto was also prime minister two times.

“Our farmers have hunger in their homes... our youth is disappointed,” said Zardari, whose Pakistan People’s Party governs the southern city of Karachi.

The message struck a chord with their supporters, in a country now suffering double digit inflation and negative economic growth.

“Inflation has broken the back of poor citizens forcing many to beg to feed their children,” said Faqeer Baloch, 63, at the Karachi rally.

“It is high time that this government should go now,” he said as the crowd chanted, “Go Imran go!”

The next general election is scheduled for 2023.

On Friday, the opposition held a mass rally in Gujranwala, a city in the eastern province of Punjab, a stronghold for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N).

Nawaz Sharif accused army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa of manipulating the 2018 elections and orchestrating his ouster in 2017, addressing the rally via video link from London, saying the corruption charges brought against him were concocted.

The military, which opposes political involvement, has yet to react directly to Sharif's allegations. Khan, who denies that the army helped him campaign, defended the military and threatened a fresh crackdown against opposition leaders on Saturday.