JUI-F marchers to reach Islamabad on 31st: Fazl

ISLAMABAD: The JUI-F Ameer, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has changed the protest schedule of Azadi March, saying the participants will now reach federal capital on October 31 to move further to the D-Chowk.

Talking to media here on Wednesday, he said the Azadi March will start on October 27 but would take three to four days for the workers from different parts of the country to arrive in the federal capital. 

He told newsmen that the decision to begin the march on October 27 was taken as his party wanted to express solidarity with people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). The Kashmiris observe Black Day on October 27 to mark Kashmir's occupation by India when its troops landed there in Srinagar in 1947.

Meanwhile, the JUI-F has sought permission from the Islamabad administration to hold Azadi March at D-Chowk Islamabad on October 27. According to the letter written to Chief Commissioner, Islamabad, the JUI-F will hold the march on October 27 against the government while exercising its democratic and constitutional right under Articles 16 and 17 of the constitution. The letter said the march will be led by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and attended by senior party leadership and a large gathering of party workers and supporters. It may be pointed out here that Interior Minister Ejaz Shah had recently said that Section 144 is imposed in Red Zone of the federal capital.

Earlier, Maulana Fazlur Rehman chaired a meeting of party’s senior leaders to discuss the arrangements for the Azadi March and sit-in. The meeting, besides others, was attended by Senators Maulana Attaur Rehman and Talha Mahmood, MNAs Agha Mahmood Shah and Mufti Abdus Shakoor and others. It was decided that the party workers would be directed not to reach Islamabad before October 31 and converge at Tarnol before proceeding further to the final destination in the capital.

In a related development, Federal Interior Minister Ijaz Shah called Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Azadi March towards the capital, an act of suicide. The federal minister expressed the hope that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief will not march with his followers towards Islamabad.

On Tuesday, it had emerged that all the opposition parties' in the Rehbar Committee had decided to take part in Maulana Fazlur Rehman's Azadi March protest due to begin on October 27. The decision was made at a meeting of Rehbar Committee, a united front of the nine opposition parties.