ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was served a 48 hour ultimatum by Pakistan Opposition leader Imran Khan, and separately by cleric Tahir-ul Qadri to tender his resignation.


Khan said that the thousands of his supporters could enter the high security Red Zone in the capital city of Islamabad if Sharif did not resign.


Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman, and Qadri, chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek, started separate rallies from Lahore on Thursday and reached in the national capital after more than 35 hours. They are camping at different venues. (See THE CITIZEN SOUTH ASIA)


Khan warned that if his demands are not met within a certain time period, his 'tsunami' would cross into the Red Zone and protest in front of Parliament.


"Don't blame me if I failed to control these people (from entering high security area). I can control them until tomorrow (Sunday) night," he said past midnight today.


On the other hand, Qadri presented a list of 14 demands in which he demanded that the Sharif government resign and the (provincial) assemblies are dissolved "within 48 hours".


Meanwhile Altaf Hussan, London-based chief of Mutahida Qaumi Movement, urged both leaders to give up their extreme demand and withdraw deadlines.


He also asked the government to start talks for finding a solution within the constitution of the country.

Agencies reported that the government was planning to shift the venue of Khan's protest which is a few hundreds meters away from the Red Zone.


Khan, whose party finished third in last year’s elections, has vowed to continue with his efforts till Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif steps down. Qadri, like Khan, has accused the Pakistani Prime Minister of rigging the elections that brought him into power. Qadri was based in Canada and flew back to Pakistan in June, with the government diverting his flight to Lahore to prevent him from landing in Islamabad. Last week, Qadri, who has long called for revolution, announced his plans for a march on Pakistan’s Independence Day.


With Sharif raising cries of a conspiracy to bring the elected government down, PTI and PAT have found a common ground. The two parties agreed to a four point agenda on Tuesday, which are as follows:

The struggle will be democratic and will bring in true participatory democracy

The struggle will be constitutional


The movement will be non-violent


Both parties will condemn any unconstitutional measure and neither will accept martial law.


The four point agenda followed a resolution by the National Assembly to safeguard democracy in the country. The resolution was tabled by PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal and itself followed reports that the city of Islamabad may be sealed on the eve of the protests.


Although the anti-government marches have no real legitimacy, given that Sharif’s party has a majority in the National Assembly and will not willingly vote itself out of power, the threat posed by these movements has definitely alarmed the ruling party, which would explain the ban on gatherings, the impounding of vehicles, the closing of petrol stations and the deployment of troops to Islamabad. Ironically however, Sharif’s decision to deploy the army has given his critics more fodder, seemingly indicating that Pakistan’s civilian administration is still heavily reliant on the country’s military, which has ruled Pakistan through a series of coups, for protection.