Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian mass movements through an Internet campaign, a Pakistani group of 150 Internet-connected friends have become the first to launch a crusade against all existing political parties and rulers challenging the current system and demanding a socio-political and economic change.
More then two-dozen Internet-connected friends, including female members of the group staged a protest against high inflation, unemployment, poor economic policies, load shedding and the domestic and foreign policies of the existing and previous governments in front of the Lahore Press Club on Friday.
The protesters, led by group leaders Syed Haseeb Akhtar Rizvi, Ghazal Naeem and Abdur Rehman, were carrying banners and placards against the Pak-US alliance in the war against terror, Pakistani officials’ silence on the issues of Raymond Davis, drone attacks, price hike, unemployment, the recent Abbottabad attack, etc.
They demanded the rulers to go in the right direction immediately on the public issues, control the price hike and reduce unemployment in the country. The asked them to be patriotic and show commitment to the people of Pakistan.
Talking about the campaign, Rizvi informed Daily Times, “Seeing the current deteriorating situation of the country, I took the initiative to launch a campaign named ‘Protest by students against corrupt politicians’ on Facebook last Monday.” He said that he had gathered more than 150 like-minded friends on the Internet and they fully agreed with his initiative and endorsed the demonstration to bring about a change at the mass level.
Ghazal Naeem and Abdur Rehman while talking to this scribe said that if an Egyptian man could cause a big mass movement against their rulers for their wrongdoings using Facebook and organise the common man of his country, then why could they not take a revolutionary step to take the Pakistani society out from current crisis using the same tactics.
They said that at the initial stage, more than 150 Internet-connected friends, mostly university going students of the upper class, have joined in for the cause while they had no affiliation with any political party or NGO. The protesters also announced that their campaign would continue until Pakistan was changed into a developed society, and hoped that more people would join their cause in the upcoming days.
No comments:
Post a Comment