Fazl says ministers trying to provoke marchers

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) head Maulana Fazlur Rahman said here on Monday that ministers were trying to provoke them, but they would remain peaceful during the protest against the government. He was addressing a grand tribal jirga at the provincial secretariat of the party.The gathering was part of the JUI-F efforts to mobilize its supporters for taking part in the Azadi March. On Monday, Maulana Fazlur Rahman also met the ANP head Asfandyar Wali Khan to seek his support for the Azadi March.Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the Azadi March would be successful and the nation would get rid of the “illegitimate and incompetent” rulers. He said the JUI-F was a political force and it believed in peaceful political struggle.He claimed his party had already organized ‘million marches’ peacefully in a number of cities in which 15 million took part and not even a single leaf was damaged. Therefore, the ministers should stop provoking us, he added.He hoped the government would not dare to stop them as people in huge numbers would come out of their houses on October 27 to begin the march to Islamabad to record protest against the PTI government’s policies.The tribal elders present on the occasion assured full support to the JUI-F march. Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that they had opposed the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as they believed the tribal issues would become more complex instead of being solved. “Today our concerns have been proved true and our policy has been vindicated,” he argued.He said the tribal people had rendered great sacrifices for the country but were badly oppressed and neglected all these years. Meanwhile, pledging support to the Azadi March, Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Monday called upon the government not to create hurdles for the marchers.He was speaking at a press conference at Wali Bagh in Charsadda district along with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman. The latter had travelled to Charsadda to meet the ANP leader and seek his support for his march on Islamabad.The ANP chief said the language being used by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai was unparliamentary.He opined that the government should not bring the situation to the point that it could not be controlled later. “We are accustomed to going to prisons. We are not afraid of being jailed,” he maintained.Asfandyar Wali declared that he would lead the Azadi March if the government arrested the leaders of JUI-F. Speaking on the occasion, Maulana Fazlur ,Rahman said all the opposition parties were supporting the movement launched by JUI-F, adding his party’s history was not hidden from anyone.He said the government and its ministers were making irresponsible statements about the Azadi March.The JUI-F chief said the economic crisis created by the government’s poor performance caused misery in the life of the common man and forced him to struggle for his survival. “Our single-point agenda is holding free and fair election,” he said.Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that a delegation of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that met him in Peshawar on Sunday had made some suggestions to his party regarding the campaign against the PTI government. He said the suggestions would be duly considered. He said his party’s Shura meeting had been convened for October 24 to give final touches to the preparations for the Azadi March. He warned that the situation could spin out of control if the government started arresting his party workers.The JUI-F leader recalled that the opposition had categorically rejected the results of the July 2018 general election. He accused the government of creating an economic crisis in the country due to its incompetence.Giving a message to the world leaders, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was not the true representative of the people of Pakistan. “This is the reason that in some countries Imran Khan was received by low-level officials,” he argued.

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