Interior minister says Fazl unlikely to come to Islamabad for ‘Azadi March’

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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Interior Ejaz Shah has said he believes Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will not come to Islamabad on October 27 to stage an anti-government protest, adding that this is not the ‘appropriate time’ for such protests.

“Nobody can dislodge the elected government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as long as it has the peoples’ support. All is well for the government,” said Shah while talking to reporters here.

“No one will be allowed to enter the capital’s Blue Area due to imposition of section 144. This is not the appropriate time for such protests. When [prime minister] Imran Khan staged a sit-in in 2014 the situation was different,” he added.

“The PTI government was voted to power by people. No one can damage it as long as people trust us. The JUI-F leader is planning to protest in Islamabad against the interests of the country,” he added.

The interior minister said soon young people graduating from religious seminaries will be able to serve the country as doctors and engineers. “We have not revised the syllabus of madrassas. Rather, we have only included books in their curriculum which would help them to become professionals.”

He said the government wants to ensure that seminary students do not necessarily end up as prayer leaders but are also eligible to join any other occupation. “No one is against madrassas or their syllabus,” he said.

He said Imran Khan is the first prime minister who raised the slogan of building Pakistan on the model of the State of Medina. “The syllabus of madrassa is not being changed; rather an effort is being made to raise educational standards. No protest march in this regard is justifiable,” he said.

Shah said his statement that four- five people were responsible for ouster of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was taken out of context.