PML-N team meets Fazl

ISLAMABAD: Fate of the Azadi March and sit-in against the PTI government hangs in balance as the PML-N leadership on Wednesday conveyed to JUI-F chief that the party was not prepared for any agitation during October. However, JUI-F chief said the final decision regarding Azdai March and the sit-in will be taken on Thursday (today).

The PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal met Maulana Fazalur Rehman at his residence here in the federal capital. “Ahsan Iqbal conveyed to the JUI-F leader that the PML-N leadership wants to postpone the Azadi March and sit-in against the incumbent government till mid-November. The meeting was held just a day after a Tuesday's meeting between delegations of PML-N and PPP led by Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardar.

The PML-N sources said the call on Maulana Fazlur Rehman by Ahsan Iqbal was meant to convey the consensus reached between the leaderships of the two main opposition parties. The PML-N also apprised Maulana Fazlur Rehman that party Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif would decide whether they should participate in both the Azadi March and sit-in or one of the events. Ahsan Iqbal also told Fazlur Rehman that the party President Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif would take directives from party supremo Muhammad Nawaz Sharif when he meets him in jail on Thursday. However, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said his party's leaders and workers were ready for Azadi March and sit-in during October.

Later, talking to newsmen, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the opposition parties are holding consultations and would move forward jointly. “All the opposition parties will be united when it comes to the decisive moment,” he said. To a question, he said politics and religion could not be separated from each other saying an attempt was being made to malign Pakistan in the name Islam. “We talk about supremacy of the Constitution and Islam is part of it,” he said.

Ahsan Iqbal told newsmen that the opposition would succeed only when all the parties move forward jointly. “We will take directions from party supremo Nawaz Sharif and he will have the last verdict,” he said. He said the PML-N's party’s senior leadership has been imprisoned due to political victimisation by the incapable prime minister.