ISLAMABAD: The mystery surrounding the next phase of the Azadi March of Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman after it reaches the federal capital continues to haunt the political landscape.
The reason is simple: Fazlur Rehman has kept his future plan a closely guarded secret and has not unveiled his elaborate programme. At the moment, it is anybody’s guess whether he will opt for a sit-in for a specified or indefinite time; whether he will advance towards the Red Zone to camp at the D Chowk on the pattern of the 2014 protest of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT); and whether he will wrap up the protest by holding a public meeting in the fixed venue of Sunday Bazaar ground in H-9 sector on the premise that he has achieved his objectives.
The common refrain of every senior JUI-F leader asked about the next part of the protest has been that the Rehbar Committee of the opposition parties will take a decision on Oct 31 when the Azadi March will arrive in Islamabad. This has been the line from day one. The JUI-F has made it public that it will not go solo what to do next and it will be a unanimous decision of the entire opposition.
It has been frequently stated that Fazlur Rehman has not done so such massive mobilization, spanning several months and holding 15 “million marches”, and put in unprecedented human and financial resources just to hold a public rally and wind up his show. It is generally averred that he has up his sleeves much more than meet the eye.
One argument is that the JUI-F chief and other opposition parties will decide their next course of action depending on the size of the crowd in the Azadi March, and if the turnout was huge, as per or beyond their expectations, they will not confine their protest to the Oct 31 show alone. So far, the public response has been considerable while the representation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where the JUI-F has a large following, is yet to become part of the march.
While the JUI-F has kept its cards close to its chest, a TV anchor has claimed that Fazlur Rehman will definitely stage a sit-in for at least two weeks after the Oct 31 event, and may prolong it if he was able to mobilize funds because the expenses on further stay would require a lot of money. However, nobody has any clue whether or not the JUI-F chief will storm into the Red Zone, throwing away the innumerable hurdles - shipping containers and barbed wire that now dominate every corner of the federal capital. This stuff has been brought to Islamabad in much more number and quantity compared to 2014.
It has been proven more than once during successive protests in Pakistan that once the agitators decide to cross the “red line” and defy the rules of the game decided with the government, they become unstoppable, uncontrollable because it is always impossible for police and other law enforcement agencies to use brute force that would lead to unforeseeable consequences. Casualties in any case result in more problems for the regime. In 2014, the same consideration all the time weighed on the minds of the then beleaguered government.
What has raised alarm bells is that the JUI-F has openly distanced itself from the agreement with the capital administration saying that it has not entered into any accord with the government, and the understanding is just an arrangement between the Islamabad party leader and the Deputy Commissioner.
This approach shows that the JUI-F has something else in its mind to follow after Oct 31, which will be clearly beyond the agreement. Even otherwise, protesting political parties hardly obey such accords.
In 2014, the PTI had signed a similar strictly worded agreement about its sit-in, but it was breached as the protesters had stormed into the Red Zone and stayed put there for months. Once they reached there, it became impossible to remove them. The then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had repeatedly referred to a text message of Imran Khan about not getting into the Red Zone. However, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, who was the KP chief minister at the time, has stated that Chaudhry Nisar had himself conveyed to him the message that the protesters can go to the Red Zone.
The repeated warnings issued by Prime Minister Imran Khan and the head of the government negotiating team Pervaiz Khattak that the stern action would be taken if the accord was breached by the JUI-F are similar to the threats given by the regime five years back.