JUIF announces countrywide protest schedule

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman has announced to launch a countrywide protest movement against the results of general elections and the first gathering to this effect would be held in Pishin, Balochistan, on April 25. In a video message released on Wednesday, the Maulana also announced a boycott of by-elections across the country and declared that the JUIF would not field candidates for by-polls on any seat in the country.

The JUIF president said that they have already rejected the results of February 8 general elections. The story of the public mandate being snatched in 2018 was repeated in 2024, he added. The JUIF, he said, in all its general council meetings at the provincial and central level had rejected the results. “We believe this parliament is a representative of the establishment, not the people of country,” he added.

The party has decided to go to the people and take them into confidence, he said, adding, the party would unite the people. “The people will have to forge unity in their ranks so that they can protect the sanctity of their votes,” he said. “Our stance is clear and we have decided to move ahead. We have decided to kick off our movement from April 25 from Balochistan,” the JUIF chief declared.

The protest gatherings to be held during the movement would be called ‘Awami assembly.’ On April 25, a mammoth gathering would be arranged in Pishin city. On May 9, another ‘people assembly’ will be organized in Karachi, which will be attended by people from all over Sindh, he said.

Similarly, on May 9, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will hold a ‘people assembly’ in Peshawar. The date for a gathering in Lahore would be finalised during the ‘Awami Assembly’ in Peshawar.

He said the election commission was helpless and had no right to compile results against the mandate of masses. He alleged that certain ‘institutions’ compiled the results and the election commission could not resist them. The JUIF chief further alleged that ‘institutions’ were making blatant interference in the constitutional powers of civil bureaucracy. “Even the judges of high courts have started speaking up against the intervention in their matters and have expressed their inability to provide justice to people under such pressure,” the Maulana remarked.

Khwaja Asif, too, has removed the curtain from the past incidents as to how the ‘institutions’ made interference in the electoral process, he maintained. “The present situation in the country has substantiated the standpoint of JUIF,” he added.

Rehman said that they would also contact other political parties to create unity among the people. He urged the party leadership at the provincial and local levels to make all-out preparations for the protest gatherings.

Meanwhile, talking on ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath” programme, Maulana Fazl said he did not foresee that the present government could last long since it was too weak to survive. However, he said the question is who masterminds such fragile governments and the focus should be on it.

When asked if he was willing to join hands with PTI, he said there has been no contact in this regard. He said he did not accept the government formed through fake mandate, adding, “We will protest which is our constitutional right.”

He asserted it was not the question who forms the government, the question rather is fraud with people and fraud with votes. “We will fight for it, no matter we manage to topple the government or not we will struggle for the right cause.”