Opposition facing rift over Islamabad march, says KP minister

BISHAM: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai on Wednesday said that the government would not allow Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to challenge its writ.

Addressing a gathering, he said that the opposition parties were facing rift over the march of the JUI-F.

“In a face-saving effort, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is trying to woo the PML-N and PPP leaders to join his protest,” he added.

The minister believed that the opposition was trying to pressure the government to prevent it from making more arrests. He said that the ones who had committed corruption were languishing in jails.

Shaukat Yousafzai alleged that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was using the seminaries students as a shield for his vested interest.

He urged the clerics to issue a decree against the JUI-F chief for calling a Muslim an agent of the Jews.

The minister said the protest by the doctors and other health employees was unjustified. However, he explained that staging protest was one’s right, but the doctors should not have suspended the OPD and other services at the hospitals.

Shaukat Yousafzai said doctors in KP were getting handsome salaries. He also dismissed the impression that the government was going to privatize the public sector hospitals.