Fazl terms foreign funding case biggest scandal of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD -- The mainstream opposition parties on Monday announced their schedule for countrywide protests starting from a demonstration in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday (today) and rallies extending to the end of February after which the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would take a final decision about long march on Islamabad.

Accusing Prime Minister Imran Khan of illegally collecting funds from across the world in the name of his party and using them for political disruption and election rigging, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief and PDM convener Maulana Fazlur Rehman said holding protest was their right and it was not an attack on the institutions.

The Election Commission of Pakistan must not be biased and should announce a just decision in foreign funding case against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Maulana said while talking to the media after a four-hour-long meeting of the PDM steering committee held at his residence.

Although the steering committee is headed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal, the Maulana chaired its meeting, while Maryam Nawaz, who is not its member, attended it on a special invitation.

Unveils details of nationwide rallies before long march

However, neither Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari nor Farhatullah Babar, the other member of the party in the steering committee, attended the meeting. The PPP was represented by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the meeting.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Maulana Fazl assured that the protest in front of the ECP office would be peaceful and within the limits of the law. He termed the foreign funding case 'the biggest scandal in Pakistan's political history' whose central character, he said, was none other than Prime Minister Imran Khan himself.

However, the Maulana declined to answer questions about the repeated absence of the PPP leadership from PDM's programmes. 'I do not want the analysts to infer any conclusion from my answer,' he remarked.

The PDM convener said the foreign funding case against the ruling PTI had been pending for six years as Mr Khan took 'the mother of NROs' to create political instability in Pakistan and 'used funds collected in the name of charity for personal business and spreading chaos, illegally and through secret accounts'.

He alleged that the money was brought into the country through illegal means such as hundi, etc.

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