–JUI-F chief meets PML-N president to chalk out strategy regarding anti-govt protest
LAHORE: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rahman on Sunday called on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif at his residence to chalk out a strategy pertaining to the upcoming Azadi March.
During the meeting, they discussed the possibility of calling an All Parties Conference (APC) over the country’s rapidly worsening economic and political situation.
Regarding the PML-N’s decision to join the sit-in, Shehbaz Sharif said he has called a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) on September 30 over the issue. He said the final decision will be taken at the CEC.
However, reports suggest that the CEC meeting will be just a “formality” and that the party has already decided in principle to join Fazl in his march on Islamabad.
Earlier in the day, the JUI-F chief told reporters that the date the anti-government march in the federal capital Islamabad will be decided soon.
As ambiguity mars the impending sit-in, Fazl said all political parties that are part of the opposition’s grand alliance will “participate in the dharna” which would remain “peaceful”.
He said that the date will be finalised after consultation with the opposition parties.
The JUI-F chief said that the opposition will not give NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance] to the Prime Minister Imran Khan. He alleged that the present government has sold out the Kashmir and it is creating drama now.
Last Sunday, the JUI-F and the PML-N had decided to jointly stage “Azadi March” in October to besiege Islamabad and oust the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, but a decision on a final date of the march would be taken later.
Though, PML-N has decided to join the march, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has refused to become a part of it unless “its reservations are addressed”.
However, the party will lend moral support to Fazl, said PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
“We support Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s politics and the issues he is raising. We provide moral support, political support for his initiative [but] strategically, we don’t see eye to eye,” he had said.
Bilawal had announced that he will go around the country as part of his mass contact campaign and raise the same issues as Rehman.
“While Rehman will be in Islamabad, I will be going across the country and our narrative will be the same, which is that this puppet, incapable prime minister, who has been imposed upon us through rigging, who has ruined our economy, who has weakened our national security position on every issue including Kashmir […] he will have to go home,” the PPP chief had said.
