Deposed Pakistan PM determined to lead rally despite bombing

Pakistan's deposed prime minister is determined to hold a rally in his powerbase, the eastern of city of Lahore, despite a deadly bombing there, a spokesman said Tuesday. Meanwhile, in another challenge to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, a firebrand opposition cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri returned home after mainly living abroad amid pending court-cases against him in Pakistan. He has vowed to get justice for eight supporters killed during 2014 anti-government rallies, reports the Associated Press. According to Malik Mohammad Ahmed, a spokesman in Punjab where Lahore is the provincial capital, former Prime Minister Nawaaz Sharif planned to travel with a convoy of supporters by road on Wednesday from the capital, Islamabad, to Lahore where he will hold the rally. Also Tuesday, police were investigating who was behind the bombing late Monday in Lahore that killed one person and wounded 30. Ahmed said that despite a security threat to Sharif's rally, "there is no change in the plans." Last month, Pakistan's Supreme Court disqualified the thrice-elected Sharif from office over concealing asset - specifically, that his son's Dubai-based company listed a monthly salary for him. Sharif has repeatedly claimed he never received any of that money. Sharif's removal plunged Pakistan into political turmoil but Sharif loyalist promptly elected senior lawmaker Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the country's new prime minister. Sharif's party wants Abbasi to serve as an interim premier for 45 days or until Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, wins a national assembly seat in a by-election. Top opposition leader and former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan fielded a female candidate Yasmin Rashid, to run in that by-election. The next general elections are due in June 2018. Qadri, the fiery cleric, said Tuesday that he will launch a fresh anti-government campaign and praised the Supreme Court for disqualifying Sharif. "Nawaz Sharif lost power due to the curse of those who lost their dear ones" in the 2014 shootouts with police, the cleric said. Three years ago, Khan and Qadri led months of anti-Sharif street demonstrations, accusing the prime minister of massive fraud in the 2013 election that brought him to office for the third time. That election was also Pakistan's first-ever democratic transfer of power. Sharif, however, never completed any of his three full terms in office. In the two earlier terms, the country's all-powerful army removed him from power.