- JUI-F likely to go it alone
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman met with Shahbaz Sharif for the second time in a week and yet again failed to secure the PML-N’s full support in his upcoming power-show at Islamabad against the PTI government. The meeting, like the previous one, concluded with Sharif wanting to take the matter to his party’s central working committee later in the week for discussion after which a final decision would be made pending approval from Nawaz Sharif, currently incarcerated at Adiala Jail. This does not bode well for the Maulana who is quite eager to march to Islamabad next month and test the PTI government that is already embroiled in a plethora of complex problems related to the economy and foreign policy. With the PML-N still dilly-dallying, hinting at not joining the long-march and the PPP already out, citing their historical rejection of such sit-ins, it seems the Maulana will most likely have to go it alone. Clearly there is a lot of pressure on both major opposition parties as most of their senior leadership is behinds bars with an indication of more to follow. In such an environment they are treading carefully in the hopes of reaching some sort of consensus with the powers that be to provide some much needed relief.
In the absence of both the PML-N and PPP, the JUI-F’s long-march will lose a fair bit of legitimacy. The ruling PTI government will spin it as a one-party putsch led by a disgruntled political has-been. Be that as it may, the Maulana can still manage the numbers required to make the government sweat. By giving the cause a religious angle he is hoping to maximise the quantity of madrassah students that will join and obediently sit at a place of his choosing for an extended duration. The country has already seen the disastrous effects of such sit-ins in the recent past, the ruling PTI government being responsible for one of the longest running ones back in 2014. It would therefore be best that some form of meaningful consensus is formed within parliament where the legitimate issues of the opposition are openly discussed. Of course it is up to the government to extend that olive branch, something it is currently unwilling to do come what may.
