ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deposed prime minister is determined to hold a rally in his powerbase, the eastern of city of Lahore, despite a deadly bombing there, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in another challenge to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a firebrand opposition cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri returned home after mainly living abroad amid pending court cases against him in Pakistan. He has vowed to get justice for eight supporters killed during 2014 anti-government rallies.
According to Malik Mohammad Ahmed, a spokesman in Punjab where Lahore is the provincial capital, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif planned to travel with a convoy of supporters by road on Wednesday from the capital, Islamabad, to Lahore where he will hold the rally.
Also Tuesday, police were investigating who was behind the bombing late Monday in Lahore that killed one person and wounded 30. Ahmed said that despite a security threat to Sharif’s rally, “there is no change in the plans.” He did not elaborate.
Last month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified the thrice-elected Sharif from office over concealing asset — specifically, that his son’s Dubai-based company listed a monthly salary for him. Sharif has repeatedly claimed he never received any of that money.
Sharif’s removal plunged Pakistan into political turmoil but Sharif loyalist promptly elected senior lawmaker Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the country’s new prime minister.
Sharif’s party wants Abbasi to serve as an interim premier for 45 days or until Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, wins a National Assembly seat in a by-election.
Top opposition leader and former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan fielded a female candidate Yasmin Rashid, to run in that by-election. The next general elections are due in June 2018. Qadri, the fiery cleric, said Tuesday that he will launch a fresh anti-government campaign and praised the Supreme Court for disqualifying Sharif.
“Nawaz Sharif lost power due to the curse of those who lost their dear ones” in the 2014 shootouts with police, the cleric said.
Three years ago, Khan and Qadri led months of anti-Sharif street demonstrations, accusing the prime minister of massive fraud in the 2013 election that brought him to office for the third time. That election was also Pakistan’s first-ever democratic transfer of power.
Militants killed in Lahore
Pakistani security forces meanwhile killed four Taliban militants in the eastern city of Lahore hours after a truck bomb killed one person and wounded 22, authorities said on Tuesday.
Attacks in Pakistan’s second-largest city have decreased over the past couple of years but militant groups are still active there, including a suicide bombing last month that killed 25 people.
A spokesman for the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said the department was following up information that militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, were planning an attack on Lahore police.
Counter-terrorism officials formed a blockade near the bomb site on Monday night where they exchanged fire with suspected Taliban militants.
“The terrorists started firing at CTD officials who took precautions. When firing stopped, 4 terrorists were found dead while 3/4 fled away taking benefit of darkness,” the spokesman said in a statement.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and it was not clear whether the militants killed were responsible for Monday’s bomb blast but police officials said that they were not ruling out a connection.
Authorities recovered one body near the blast site on Monday night after initially saying there had been no casualties.
“Yesterday’s blast left one dead, whose body was recovered from rubble of a nearby collapsed house... A huge quantity of explosives was used in the truck,” Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan told Reuters.
Ex-Pak PM determined to lead rally despite bombing
Ex-Pak PM determined to lead rally despite bombing
