ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An official ban on public gatherings in volatile Karachi has been lifted temporarily ahead of a planned rally by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the city to protest against "derogatory" outbursts of the opposition against President Asif Ali Zardari.While the MQM, an ally of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was preparing to hold the rally today, the Sindh provincial government relaxed the restrictions imposed last month for two days, reports said.
- The MQM announced its move after the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party held a massive rally against Zardari in Lahore, capital of Punjab province where it is in power.
- Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of PML-N president and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, heaped scorn on Zardadri in his speech at the rally.
- "If you don't step down you and your cronies will be hanged upside down," he warned, as the crowd shouted "Go Zardari go." The onslaught against its leader enraged the PPP. Central and provincial leaders of the party denounced the insulting language used against the president, accusing the PML-N leadership of undermining the democratic order restored in the country after the 2008 general election.
- PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badar said yesterday in Lahore that talk of hanging someone upside down was indicative of "mental illness".
- Badar said the PML-N's intentions were "dangerous for democracy" and warned that the PPP's reconciliatory approach should not be taken as a weakness.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehreek Insaaf (justice movement) is also making hectic preparations for its scheduled public rally in Lahore today at the Minar-e-Pakistan memorial to demonstrate its growing popularity.Khan is expected to lash out at the PPP and PML-N leadership and urge the masses to vote for a change in the next general election.
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