And the #PDMKarachiJalsa has started

. @BBhuttoZardari @MaryamNSharif on the stage. Along with PPP and PML-N leaders

Maulana Sb, Achakzai SB, ANP leaders also on stage. The jalsa is starting at a VERY good time.

[This is a massive jalsa. With all the colours of the country, and women and children so well represented!]

Now speaking: @mjdawar.... First, thanks all the PDM leadership.

Thanks BBZ for inviting him to speak at the jalsa. Calls Karachi 'mini Pakistan'. Says a PTM leader has been assassinated just a few hrs back. Condemns the target killing and says this raises a question on the security apparatus.

Says IF IK is the PM, he needs to answer: why is this happening. Says today he pays respect to the martyrs of Karsaz.

Says IF IK is the PM, he needs to answer: why is this happening. Says today he pays respect to the martyrs of Karsaz.

Says in the Gujranwala rally, @NawazSharifMNS had said something. Says NS had made some allegations that were not simple, and were not made by an ordinary man but by a three-time PM.

Says what should have happened was that in reply the PM should have ordered investigations. Says that is the formula he used to apply when he wasnt PM. Says IK used to say that when allegations are made, govt officials should resign. Says now theres a change in how the PM thinks.

Says we demand that if Mian Sb says this, why doesnt the PM announce an enquiry.

Asks for commission to look into where Ehsanullah Ehsan came from, what was he charged with, What safe house he was kept in, how he was let go.

Says terrorists are returning to Fata regions. Says we are scared that we (fata) will be used once again. Says our children will be used, our ppl will be used -- yet again. Says when we say this, we are labelled ghaddar by the govt.

Says this truth commission should look into all those political workers who have been assassinated. Says there is something that is being concealed. Says no target killing or FIRs or labels will make us back off.

Says @Gulalai_Ismail parents have been charged with made-up charges.

Says this movement (PDM) is a beginning for civilian supremacy and real democracy. That the way Pakistanis have been treated needs to stop, and this movement is a beginning for that

Says whether it is a Pashteen or a Baba Jan or an Okara peasant or a Sindhi, the govt has made up cases against these ppl based on political differences. Says they have put up a fake PM to be used as a punching bag. That real power lies elsewhere.

Says people are kept in internment centres for years on end. Asks the PM to make the truth commission. Says PDM leaders must also promise that if they come to power they will ask to look into this too.

Says every day there are extrajudicial and custodial killings. That there are no FIRs or investigations. Says there is a sit-in in Waziristan against a few persons' disappearances. Says nothing is done.

Tells the state: you cant go on via such tactics. Says ppl need to be made to feel as citizens and not slaves. Says if that doesn't happen, then 'yeh company nahin chale gee".

[Go Imran Go in the air at the #PDMKarachiJalsa ]

National Party's Dr Malik: pays tribute to the Karsaz martyrs. Thanks BBZ for inviting him. Pays tribute to Hasil Bizenjo for getting the movement together.

Talks abt the 'security state' which does not recognise the people's rights. Says we ask that the rights of all be accepted. Says the state thinks power comes from the gun, not the ppl.

Says the state has made parliament a rubber-stamp. Says it has crippled the judiciary and the media. Says this is not how a state works. Says five operations have been imposed on Balochistan. Asks what is going on in Waziristan and KP.

Talks about Bugti's murder, and enforced disappearances. Says the state must take fwd negotiations started in the last govt. Says the last Punjab govt (NS and SS) had kept a quota for Baloch students in Punjab unis. Says the selected govt has finished the system.

Says our children are dying of thirst, hunger. And you still say after 72 years that you are in deficit.

Says until Pakistan mends ties with neighbours, Pakistan will not see economic progress.

[Strong speech by Ameer Haider Hoti at the jalsa.]

Hoti says today the worker is protesting, the peasant is protesting, the trader is protesting, the bureaucracy is protesting. Says ask the poor how expensive roti and produce are. Says ask the poor how expensive meds are.

Says we ask the govt: where are those crore jobs. Where are the lakhs of houses. Says what did we get in the end: Murghi, Anda, Bakray.

Says Imran: Ghabrana nahin hai. Says IK says we ask for NRO. Says why would we ask you for an NRO. Asks IK: can you even give an NRO? Who asked you for an NRO. Says PDM doesnt want an NRO.

Says NRO we dont want. NRO Tareen, Khusro, Buzdar, Khattak want NROs. Says we dont just want an end to this selected govt. Says we want to bring a new social contract.

Achakzai speaking now. Says this jalsa's impact will be far-reaching.

Says we have made the PDM with a lot of thought. Says we need the people's support. Says this caravan is out for a new Pakistan.

Achakzai Sb gives a history of what Pakistan was to be. Says we are accused of being traitors.

Says Benazir Bhutto was my sister. Says I used to argue with her but she never minded that. Says we should have thought the day Karsaz happened: how are these terrorists so powerful.

Says being shaheed is an honour but asks WHY this shehr (Karachi) has seen so much death. Talks about 12 May.

Says Karachi is host to people from all over Pakistan. It is the capital of Sindh and will remain Sindh's capital.

Says every fauj has the duty to defend its county. Says its hardly an 'ihsaan'.

Says anyone who violates the constitution is a traitor. Says we are not mad that we are not mad to not respect the jawan who goes into battle. Says we pray that the Pak Army becomes the best fauj ....[now cant hear im bec music]

[Large chunks of Achakzai's speech being drowned out by music]

Says Pakistan is younger to a lot of people here. But Sindh is thousands of years old as are Pakhtuns and Punjabis and Baloch. [Again music censoring his speech....very bad]

[Im watching Achakzai's speech on http://gostv.org  And even this relay seems to be censoring (?) his speech via music]

[Okay this is getting ridiculous. Why have they censored more than half of Achakzai's speech? Because there seems to be zero justification for drowning out his voice with music]

Achakzai says us Sindhis, Baloch and Pakhtuns will not settle for being second class citizens. Says we dont want khairaat. We want to be equal citizens.

Says we have no differences with the fauj. Says the constitution is not just a piece of paper but a social contract between the people and the state.

Says if there is no constitution, then what is our relationship with each other? Says we are bound together as Sindhis, Baloch, Pakhtuns, Seraikis etc by this constitution.

Says we have had four martial law regimes. Says the PDM has to promise the people that when it (parties of it) comes into power it will respect the people who resisted martial law

[Achakzai now can be heard fine. No drowning down of voice]. Achakzai says this is our promise: we will not break the gates of parliament and sit there. We will not take a container or attack a TV station or the PM House.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal now addressing the jalsa.

Mengal says our ghaddari certificates are so old theyre moth-eaten now. Welcomes PDM leaders to the club.

Says after all our jalsas, will any patriot be left in the country?

Says if the media were free, Jang/Geo's Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman would not be behind bars. Says the free are those who have violated the constitution, massacred the oppressed. Says all this doesnt happen in a free land. Says a land whose leaders are not free, wht happens to its poor?

Says democracy has been chained up and locked up. Says unfortunately, if you break a traffic signal you are fined. But if you violate the constitution nothing happens to you. Says when the defenders of the constitution wont respect it, then why would normal citizens do that

Says there have been allegations that the workers at the jalsa were given qeemay walay naan. Says I request that Papa Johns be ordered for the workers. Says people dont come for naans. Says ppl come with their own passion.

Says the people love this country. No Papa Johns Pizza can compete with that. Says who was this land made for? For the people here or for those who have made millions abroad and kept their money abroad.

Says who are we to turn to when we're killed?

Says we used to have to protect the coast. Now we have to defend our islands. Says what is this qabza group?

Talking about the killed Baloch who have to be identified by their families by their broken shoes and bloodied clothes bec their faces are unrecognisable.

Saeed Ghani gives a very warm welcome to @MaryamNSharif who is abt to address the #PDMKarachiJalsa

[Lovely to see so many women there]

Maryam speaks. Thanks BBZ and the PPP (Saeed Ghani by name too) for inviting her and hosting her.

Says shes come to Khi after years. Says she thought of Benazir Bhutto when she reached Khi. Says she only met BB once, for three years, In Saudi Arabia when they were in exile. Says BB and Zardari came for dinner and spent time with her; says she can never forget that meeting

Says the way Khi has greeted and welcomed her and the love they have given she will not be able to repay this honour all her life.

Says she cant feel much of a difference between Lahores streets and Karachis streets today. Thanks the ppl again. Thanks Sindh's CM Murad Ali Shah and says the Sindh govt deserves respect for the way they dealt with the corona crisis.