PML-N calls on JUI-F chief to share concerns over anti-govt protest

A PML-N delegation met Wednesday with the head of JUI-F, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in order to present the position of the party in its call to march against the government scheduled for this month.

PML-N presented its proposals after a discussion among the members of its central executive committee.

The main proposal is to postpone the march to "better mobilize resources" to participate in the protest, said PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, who addressed a joint press conference with Rehman after the meeting.

The PML-N delegation, which included Iqbal, Shah Mohammad Shah, Ameer Muqam, Abdul Qadir Baloch and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, also informed the head of JUI-F and his accompanying delegation of the party meeting with PPP president Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other members of the PPP.

The head of the JUI-F said that a meeting of the central executive committee of the party will take place tomorrow, after which the response to the proposals of the PML-N will be shared.

At the press conference after the meeting, Iqbal said that "all the opposition, including PML-N, PPP and MMA, agree that the current government has failed in a year."

"It is a worrying fact that eight businessmen go to the army chief to tell him that the companies are about to declare bankruptcy. If the merchants go to the army chief to express their complaints, where are we going?" Iqbal commented.

"If the whole burden of government failure falls on military leadership, how will this country work?"

Iqbal, in new criticism, said the country cannot function successfully "with frequent reorganization of the cabinet." "The real problem lies in our vindictive and failed prime minister."

During the press conference, Iqbal reiterated the position of the party on the delay of the long march. "If we move forward with a joint strategy, we will see better results," he said.

Iqbal said the party's president, Shehbaz Sharif, will inform his elder brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, jailed in the Kot Lakhpat jail of Lahore for owning assets beyond income, of the party's decisions made in the central executive committee meetings.

"The decision of Nawaz Sharif will be the final decision of the game," he said.

Rehman, during the press, expressed concern about the "religious identity of Pakistan that is fading." He accused the prime minister of "playing a religious card at the UN" to counter the JUI-F anti-government movement.

"On the one hand, he defended the hijab, while on the other, a notification was withdrawn to declare the mandatory hijab in KP," he said.

"On the one hand, he talks about the honor of the Prophet, while on the other, he releases who went against him," he continued, referring to the absolution of Aasia Bibi in a case of alleged blasphemy.

The head of the JUI-F stressed that religion "is a part of the Constitution that cannot be separated from it."

A day earlier, at a joint press conference held in Islamabad with the PML-N, the PPP announced that it seeks to ensure "that there is no unilateral action in a long march to Islamabad."

The relationship between the JUI-F and the PPP became sour after the leaders of both parties accused each other of playing politics on the subject.

The PPP had expressed its reluctance to participate in the anti-government movement due to the inclusion of the issues of blasphemy and Namoos-i-Risalat laws in its agenda. In addition, both the PPP and the PML-N had also opposed the idea of ​​holding an indefinite sitting, as did the PTI in 2014.