Opposition parties' alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement on Monday announced that it will hold countrywide protests and rallies from October 20 and onwards against rising inflation and increasing cost of essential items in the country.

After the PDM's central committee meeting, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief and the alliance's president Maulana Fazlur Rehman spoke to the media in Islamabad when he said they dismissed the National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Ordinance 2021.

"The NAB is remains of dictatorship and it is always used against opposition for revenge," the PDM chief said, adding the opposition had no expectations of accountability from the institution.

The PDM also rejected electoral reforms introduced by the government.

"Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is another name of Results Transmission System (RTS) for complex and organized rigging in polls," said the JUI-F chief.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came into power in 2018 elections through rigging and that the government had no right to provide a formula or law to the country for free and fair elections.

The PDM chief also demanded that general elections should be conducted in the country, saying the local government polls would yield no results in the present set up of the government.

In other news, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad told the media that the opposition was holding protest just for the sake of it.

Justifying the government's stance on raising prices of petroleum products, the federal minister said, "We don't live on another planet. If there is a global increase in prices of oil, we will witness a hike in the prices."

He asked the opposition to come up with an alternate solution to curb the rising inflation in the country.

Talking about the civil-military relationships, Fawad said Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan often hold meetings and that Monday's was a regular meeting.

Referring to the appointment of director general Inter-Services Intelligence, he said, "All the matters have been resolved."

The federal minister invited the opposition to come forward and hold talks with the government regarding electoral reforms and other matters.