Fazlur Rehman pledges protest movement to dislodge govt

KARACHI: The Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday has renewed his demand for Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down, terming his government as illegitimate and incompetent, and said the opposition’s latest protest movement would dislodge the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government because the rulers had pushed the country to the brink of economic bankruptcy.

He was addressing a well-attended public rally of the six-party opposition alliance at Karachi’s New M.A Jinnah Road. Months after abruptly ending his ‘Azadi’ march campaign last year against the federal government, the JUI-F chief has revitalized the alliance’s all six component parties, including the JUI-F, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), the National Party (NP), the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees (MJAH) and announced the new phase of anti-government protest. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pakistan People's Party and Awami National Party are not included in the six-party alliance.

The JUI-F Chief Rehman said that the new series of protests would get an overwhelming response because the masses are in deep trouble due to the government policies. “Because of the high inflation and unemployment, people are going without two square meals while the government claims that the country is on the path to prosperity and development,” Rehman said. “This incompetent government has brought about the virtual collapse of the country’s economy in its 18-month rule,” he said. “This government has added to their miseries of the poor people, who cannot feed their children.”

The PkMAP Chief, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, said that the component parties of the coalition would continue working for the supremacy of parliament. Achakzai said had all opposition parties joined the JUI-F Azadi March last year, the PTI government would’ve been ousted. “We will raise our voice against every dictator and unjust ruler,” he said. He alleged that the parliament and Election Commission of Pakistan were being controlled, while strict censorship was imposed on media in different ways and means. He congratulated the MNAs of the JUI-F, the NP, the PkMAP and the PTM for not supporting the Army Act last year and said that other parties supported those forces involved in breaking the constitution in the past. Achakzai warned that the masses would soon be on roads against the unaffordable prices and other policies of the government. He claimed that this anti-government agitation would be historic.

The NP’s central secretary general Jan Muhammad Buledi, the JUP’s secretary-general Allama Shah Owais Noorani in their speeches said that the government due to its incompetence was unable to fulfill any promises they had made to the Pakistani people. The people are in utter despair therefore it important to address their issues and change the government, they said.