sentencing today. anchor: this "al jazeera." these are the top stories. the number of coronavirus deaths in the united states has surpassed 400,000 on the eve of joe biden inauguration. memorials have been held across the country. it's important to remember the painful lessons of the past year . >> to heal, we must remember, it's hard sometimes to remember. but that's how we heal. it's important to do that as a nation. that's why we're here today.

between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred polar reflection and remember all whom we lost. >> donald trump has delivered his farewell speech. he took credit for vaccine development and once again blamed china for unleashing the coronavirus upon the world. senate leader mitch mcconnell said trump provoked a mob there. it's a rare criticism from the senior republican. he spoke ahead of joe biden's administration. security draws underway hours ahead of the presidential inauguration ceremony. 12 national guard members have been relieved of duty for the inauguration after an intensified vetting procedure. >> italy's prime minister giuseppe conte has survived a

confidence vote allowing him to hold on to power. it was triggered by mate renzi criticized over the coronavirus pandemic. a thai court has handed a jail sentence for a woman for insulting the king. the foreman civil servant was found on -- guilty on criticizing the monarchy.

anchor: i'm kim. lines of opposition parties in pakistan has held its first rally of the year demanding the prime minister step down. the pakistan democratic moment -- movement called on supporters outside the election commission. they say the prime minister accepted illegal funds from abroad during the 2013 elections. last week, the party raised campaign funds but blamed illegalities on agents of the u.s. without picking who they

were. kahn committed a national crime and should be punished. we'll bring in our panel of experts shortly. but first this report from islamabad. >> the borders of the pakistan democratic alliance are in front of the election commission of pakistan which is simp waited in the red zone. normally protests are not allowed in this area. however, the government has said that it will keep all the roads open in order for the opposition to come and launch its protest in front of the election commission of pakistan and the important case against the pakistan that's the party led by emran khan. but if they are making this a real power show of force it has not been able to muster the kind of support that it has during the rallies across pakistan.

the government, on the other hand, is still very confident that they will be able to do this. but this particular democratic alliance is an amalgamation of 11 political parties with different ideology. and they do not agree yet on the tactics and the strategy. however, they are hopeful that they will be able to bring their people against the government in a show of support in order to promote the government to step down. anchor: the p.d.m. alliance was formed four months ago marking the first time in history all of pakistan's party have you newted to force khan from power. the leaders alleged he rigged the 2018 election that brought tariq in power.

they say his power is a puppet for the military. and they are struggling to cope with the economic decline. unemployment at and one of the worst inflation rays and it has led to public discontent with his policies. khan has failed to initiate economic reforms that he promised. his plan to wyden the tax base is expected to fail. and he's offer nod clear solution to deal with the country's foreign debt of more than $100 billion. for more on this, i'm joined by our guest, shipley faraz. and pershawa perez parcha and ishmael, he served as finance minister for the former prime minister. a very warm welcome to you all. i would like to begin with this

misyou of funds allegations. this has been described as the biggest scandal pakistan's political history. has the p.t.i. turned over all of the requested documents? where is that? >> thank you very much for having me on your program. secondly as -- you were talking about -- the -- the election commission of pakistan and the opposition p.d.m.'s protest in regard to the foreign funding case. well, i want to put that on record that pakistan is the first political party which started a proper organized recorded system of donations from its party members. our -- and we have very qualified accountants who maintain our books. and we have in this case, we have submitted to the election

commission of pakistan 400 -- 4078,000 and proof of all of the donations have that come from abroad. and we have submitted this since long ago but b.d.m., the opposition coalition have which trying its best to kind of destabilize the -- the democratic collected government. is almost on its knees because they're -- their protest has not attracted people of pakistan because they have -- they know that these governments, the past governments especially the pakistan's people's country. there have really damaged this country and they have in pass and the latest revelation of that has been the broad cheese

gate apart from the panama scandal in 2016. >> ok. before we move on -- before we move on -- before we move on from the foreign funding scandal, the rb people turned on to scandal, i just want to bring up, do you trust the election commission to bring about a timely response? >> thank you so much for having me. the election commission is taking in inorder nantly long to decide this matter. the first initial case was found by a p.t.i. founding member in 2014. this has taken six long years. and p.t.i. has used every delatory captain it can. there are very, very full simple questions that we ask. where is this money coming from? who is funding p.t.i. it could be pakistan or foreigners. >> if they are -- what is the content of money and are those

being deglected by and where is this money going? is this money going for a party reasons or particular spence and why are there so many shell companys that the company form to -- to -- to channel these donations in into? why is there such a complicated range of this -- and they're trying to delay -- so we are now protesting -- i'm not particularly sure that the e.c.b. will still decide because i'm -- i mean, to be very honest with you, everybody knows in pakistan, it's an open and shut case, p.t.i. is guilty of this. and that the party administration will end. but obviously, the government is doing everything it can to delay the proceedings. >> we haven't had a -- a ruling

or response from the election commission. it has been going on for a long time. do you think emran khan is feeling the heat? >> this is the first real challenge for this government because of their own tactics and because of their own strategy related to this case. they've been accused of using delay tactics. and it took them six years, the election commission hasn't -- decided just yetcht and it looks more dubious when p.t.i. was trying to -- was it very open and clear about this case. so they are in real trouble because there is something which they have to answer for. >> ok. >> i can see you smiling there, mr. forest. before we move on from the foreign fund allegations is there any response you would like to give from what you sheered far? >> my colleague mr. smiles --

his r his government with there. and we have to put all of our approves and record in front of the school committee by the election commission of pakistan. whereas, i'm sorry to say that i would slightly disagree with your analyst, and that sbst -- and then it was refer to the election of the commission of pakistan. so we will are -- we have done what we have -- we had to do. and we are urn no pressure. we are not feeling the heat because we know that pack tan is the first party which pakistan is the first party that has brought up a transparent commission of electing funds. whereas -- people countered on the invested interest groups on

the land grabbers and all the illegal -- people involved with illegal activities. because they to the quick pro quo. and they return the favors. so it is the first time that pakistan has a very transparent way of collecting funds from its party people. it's just $10, $12, 15 $15. we are quite relaxed. and that whice the call by these 11 parties would hardly muster 2,000 people, which is i think it says it all. >> i want to move on from the foreign funding issue. mr. ishmael, ho dow you -- you feel like the p.t.i. is under pressure regardless of what mr. farall says. how do you think that mon cal has gotten to this point in the years since he's taken office, how has he gotten here?

>> when he came to power. and even though we -- we -- we believe and we actually adjusted and said that you know, there were -- the elections were rigged. and emran was selected and not really elected. but there were a lot of pakistani who did support him. and many of pakistan is hopeful that now that he's here, he's going to do some of things that he wanted to do. >> basically he lies. everything that he said, he's actually gone against it. this is not a democratic regime by any chance. by any imagination. i mean, this is really a sort of a -- a semifashionist government where there's a lot of curtailment in the media. and free speech. our economy when i was the answertial minister go ahead and

get 5.8%. now, it was negativive 0.3%. they have not been able to collect as much taxes as i did last year. deficits in pakistan. the debt, they've added 40% of edit to overall debt. what we added in 0 years, they were like 40 years and 40% of that. >> are we going to go nail down or drill down on the economy for a mo. i would like to see you mr. parcher. in he talked about the military and military support of emran khan. how much military support does president cap have? and why is that so important? >> you may not understand the role of the military in pakistan. put that in context for us. >> ok. thank you. pakistanny military considers

itself as the custodian of state ideology. pakistan military chiefs, usually publicly we say that we are not only the defenders of pakistani physical geo graphic call orders. out of pakistan's 73 years, 35 years, the military has all the country click dri. and the rest of the time they were ruling -- they were voluming in behind the scenes. it's an pope secret in pakistan that the military didn't get hurt during policy the reason the rational for that is that pakistani poll situations at particular parties are not trained enough. are not ma chured enough. therefore we will manage

>> the economy and the foreign poll said and the international policy. 'em ran khan is the first prime minister says who says that the military and his government are on the same page. he is the one who mentioned military. most of the time in his speeches in his famentes. and he gives this impression. he makes these claims that the military is vetting him. the meltary -- whatever policies he follows. whatever policy he pursues. >> i mean, they were -- it was non-- people were saying that the military is one of the major players. but this the past three years, it appears that the current government, the prime minister refers to associate and back on and depend on the military support. and he says the military and

v.t.i. are on the same page pursuing the same policies of the defense of pakistan for the betterment of pakistan and he believes this is the right one. >> ok. mr. shibly faraz. unemployment high was . and now it's gone into negative. the numbers say that how responsible is moncada or did you just inherit a significant schism weigh. >> i would like to clarify that what you dwhash mr. placha said, there's no doubt that the military has been in power on different occasions. but this -- this time around, and hahn who is the most popular

leader. and he vuzz very popular. because he's an internal athlete. and did a lot of social york before making a cancer, hospital, making universities and over social work. he was a known person in this country. and the reason people voted for him was that people were fed up with the -- with this -- with the two-party system which they would take turns and destroy the economy and the suchers of this country. and so that's why the people of pang stan shows ibrahn hahn and the most population leader. >> he has a daughter that is a very -- a great record of being an honest man and he's a great leader. and that's why they elected him. now -- now, that the only complaint about the position which is hiding behind economic

figures or through -- through protests is because in ran hahn is going after them because he wants as the people mandated him to get the moneys -- stolen money back from abroad. they's why they're taking like this. i must say that why is it that right from the outset -- >> the economy -- you know we were already in a highly dire situation. and that's why people were saying why do you go for a doctor. i am not bell. this is whathe left, pakistan basically after we came into the power, our first job was to stabilize the economy. artificially worked the dollar value just to encourage

imported. and if they had made it as an import, and particularly their reports were shrinking. so we stabilized and brought it to its real value. and as a result our foreign debt would increase. secondly after that, we very -- we -- we stabilize the economy, we stabling lies the exchange rate. and at record of foreign and our record. our last game is going up. which was at whopping $60 billion. and be brought down within the short span of time and secondly that after -- >> i want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to respond. we are -- >> but just last comment. >> ok. very quickly. >> just last comment. just last comment. just last comment. >> just last comment. >> the companies that are across

the world like u.s., u.k., europe, every brazil, japan all have shrink. so seeing that pakistan, the economy for the first time is in the negativity would be up fair because we did extremely well on the covid front and people on the ex-finance sextary of the u.s. pakistan's example, you would received have $10 million. >> i need to give mr. ishmael the right of reply. i can see you shaking your head, sir, go ahead. >> well, i think that my friend has some of these numbers wrong. exports actually so far pakistan's high yist experts are to be proud in government. >> in the first year before covid came, they had 4, our00.

drg and -- had 400,000. >> i want to know what this means for people who want to buy rice? >> so the thing after 40% devaluation they're not able to decrease exports. but what has happened is they've doubled the price of sugar. we left the price of 55 a piece. they doubled the price of wheat flower. there's a shortage after two years -- the last two years of -- there was no shortage of energy. now, there's gas in your stoves, in your factories. >> there's something called circular debt. that has gone up. the increased gas by 140%. have increased power tariffs by

40%. and yet, there's a lot of deaf zit -- even people who support him know that this is the most incomp tept government there has ever been. >> ok. >> one last point if i made. >> they had a mississippi ter who comes in. in 15 days he allows drug prices like 500%. he was then we moved. no action was taken against him. so from medicines to wheat flower, they dashed a lot of things. and made everything worse. >> we also are here for analysis. if the country is really at a point of mass movement, if the opposition does have all of this movement, why not just table a no confident moment. how much momentum do you think the opposition really hat right now? >> i think that opposition has to go a long way. they have been able to organize

rallies, big rallies in certain cities but they don't have yet the momentum where everybody comes out on the streets and protests against the government and buildings a pressure which can in pakistan that they have the part of changing the government. so i don't think opposition is at that stage yet where they are can hopefully remove the government by street protests. >> yes, to a movement of -- well, note vothe of no confidence. they have ke move the govers. they have splim majority. >> he relies on his -- he didn't enough numbers of his own party. but again, even if opposition brings that, no confidence move.

that next government will be a wheat government depending on independence and lots of other smaller partners. and also opposition is that in pakistan, the parliament -- the military establishment has -- you could see in the foundation of governments, even they can manipulate and they can make the most in the parliament decisions that are. if the establishment guarantees them them that that could wow not support. maybe they're able to remove emran khan. . he has the full support of the accomplishment. so when that -- that is the --

it's difficult for an opposition to bring the no comforts move and they're out on the street protesting >> we are out of time. i appreciate you coming on the program. thank you to all of our guests. and thank you mr. ishmael. and thank you too for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website. al jazeera.com. go to our facebook page. that's facebook/bloomer blsh booger half. for me and the whole team here, bye-bye for now.