PPP, PML-N to thrash out role in march today – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: While opposition parties at a Rahbar committee meeting on Tuesday discussed strategies for their participation in the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) anti-government march in Islamabad, the Pakistan-Nawaz Muslim League and the Popular Party of Pakistan decided to convene meetings of their main leaders to finalize the modalities.

Hours after the Rahbar opposition committee meeting, PPP president Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari convened a meeting of the party's central committee in Karachi, while PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif ordered the seniors Party leaders who met at his Lahore residence to discuss options for participating in the Long March.

Ignoring calls from other opposition parties to delay the proposed long march, the head of JUI-F, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had announced last week her party's decision to celebrate "Azadi March" to Islamabad on October 27, He said he aimed to overthrow Pakistan Tehreek. Government of i-Insaf.

The JUI-F chief had said that a sit-in would be held at the D-Chowk in Islamabad, the place where the PTI had organized a sit-in for 126 days five years ago. He said they had chosen on October 27 for the march to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir who would observe a black day the same day to condemn the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.

JUI-F informs other opposition parties about protest plans

Meanwhile, Bhutto-Zardari ordered Sindh's Prime Minister Murad Ali Shah to guarantee cooperation with JUI-F for his peaceful democratic protest "against the injustice of the federal government."

The directives were issued by the PPP president during his meeting with the prime minister in Karachi, according to an official announcement from the party's media office.

The Sindh government would do everything possible to ensure the safety of protesters and citizens alike, the president said. The Sindh government would coordinate with protesters and organize alternative routes for traffic to ensure the minimum disruption of daily life, he said.

Bhutto-Zardari said that protest was a fundamental right of all citizens in a democratic society and the benchmark of a prosperous democracy.

Earlier in the Rahbar committee meeting, JUI-F leaders informed other opposition parties about their plan for the long march.

A participant in the meeting said later Dawn that the JUI-F had informed them of their strategy, but believed that there could be some things that had been kept secret to ensure that the government did not prepare a counter-strategy.

Representatives of the opposition parties told reporters after the meeting that their demand was the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the elections in the country.

Rahbar committee coordinator and JUI-F leader Akram Durrani said that opposition parties agreed that the prime minister should resign and that new elections should be held in which there should be no role of the army inside or outside the polling stations.

Meeting attendees included PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal, PPP leaders Farhatullah Babar and Nayyar Bukhari and Mian Iftikhar Hussain of the ANP.

In stating that "all opposition parties are with us," Mr. Durrani said that the JUI-F according to his plan would keep Azadi March to Islamabad on October 27 against the government.

He said that celebrating the protest march was his constitutional right and that his party had already held 15 million marches in various parts of the country in the past and all had remained peaceful.

"During our marches, we didn't even interrupt the traffic," he said, adding that his party was fighting for the protection of the Constitution.

The principal leader of the JUI-F made it clear that they would not use any religious card. He also recalled that it was the PTI who celebrated the 126-day sit-in in Islamabad during which party workers attacked state buildings, including Pakistan Television and the House of Parliament, and also beat police officers. He said PTI activists had not allowed parliamentarians to move to the building from outside doors. "But we are going to hold a peaceful march," he said.

He also condemned the statement by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's chief minister, Mehmood Khan, that JUI-F activists would not be allowed to proceed to Islamabad to participate in the march.

Posted on Dawn, October 9, 2019