Islamabad sit-in to continue till CJP’s resignation: Fazl

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday called upon the people and workers of all political parties to reach the Constitution Avenue on Monday morning for a sit-in and demonstration, which would continue till the resignation of the chief justice of Pakistan.

He said the sit-in would be staged against the protection being given by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court to a criminal, Imran Khan.

Over one lakh workers would participate in the sit-in and demonstration. “I will ask workers of all political parties to reach the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad at 9am on Monday to show national solidarity against protection to the criminal by the three-member bench and the high court,” Fazl said in a video message on Saturday. He said all preparations for the protest event had been completed and thousands of workers would reach the venue from all the provinces.

The PDM chief said they wanted to protect the institutions and correct the distortion created by judges who were given salaries from taxes paid by poor people. “Today judges are breaching the Constitution, law and judicial traditions and giving one-sided protection and VIP protocol to a criminal to encourage him to commit crimes again in the future and destroy the country’s economy,” he said, adding that the courts were encouraging the criminal to weaken the country and to disintegrate.

“We have again taken to the field to protect the country and institutions and that is why, inviting people and workers of all political parties to reach the venue,” he said and asked workers of Ansarul Islam, a volunteer organisation of the JUIF, to ensure discipline and peace during the protest. He requested lawyers to participate in the event to ensure supremacy of law.

Fazl said the whole nation was protesting against the actions of a few individuals of an institution and the biased approach to breach the Constitution. “We should make it a national protest to give a strong message to the judiciary to give up such actions,” the PDM chief said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) has decided to participate in the sit-in of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Monday.

In this regard, a meeting of the party leaders was held at their Model Town Secretariat on Saturday. The meeting was chaired by Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique and attended by PMLN Lahore President Saiful Mulook Khokhar, General Secretary Khawaja Imran Nazir and members of national and provincial assemblies and ticket-holders from Lahore.

During the meeting, the PMLN leadership decided to participate in the JUI-F’s planned demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Monday and tasked the party members with gathering maximum people for the Islamabad protest.

PMLN Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz appointed PMLN Lahore President Khokhar as convener for the Islamabad rally, which would start from Jati Umrah, Lahore. It was earlier decided that Maryam would lead the rally to Islamabad but later the decision was dropped.