JUI-F voices support for PPP, PML-N’s stance over Article 149

Following the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Sindhi nationalist parties, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl has also opposed the federal government’s decision of forming the Karachi Strategic Committee and rejected the suggestion of invoking the Article 149.

Federal Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem’s statement of invoking Article 149 of the Constitution for the uplift of Karachi has sparked a new controversy in the province. The Karachi Strategic Committee recently formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to resolve the issues of the city is also under severe criticism by various political circles.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday, JUI-F Sindh Secretary General Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro said the federal government had been spreading hatred in the name of the Karachi committee but residents and political parties of the province would not accept it.

Soomro was of the view that politicking on the Article 149 was part of the international agenda and its implementation would be considered an attack on Sindh. He said the rulers had closed their eyes to the civic issues of Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, but were discussing only Karachi for obvious political reasons.

He said the federal law minister should ask his party’s mayor to resolve the civic issues of Karachi, instead of issuing irresponsible statements. He called on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders to resign from their posts instead of engaging in petty politics if they could not resolve the issues of Karachi

Soomro said his party had completed preparations for a decisive long march in October, which he termed ‘Azadi March’, with the aim to oust the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government. “Party workers at the district and provincial levels are being mobilised to march on Islamabad,” he added and warned that the federal government would be responsible for any untoward incident if it attempted to stop the JUI-F workers.

Maulana Abdul Kareem Abid, Muhammad Aslam Ghauri, Maulana Muhammad Ghayyas, Muhammad Sami Swati and other party office-bearers were also present at the press conference.