Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Thursday said the narrative of opposition is lifeless and baseless and the protesters coming to Islamabad should not do anything damaging to the national security and image of the country.
Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Interior Ejaz Shah, she said the government has the responsibility to provide security to 7000 members of the diplomatic corps and staff belonging to different embassies and international organisations based in Islamabad. “The United Nations had declared Islamabad a non-family station after the Marriott hotel bomb attack in 2008. However, due to efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Islamabad has again been declared a family station in 2019,” she recalled, adding that the government has improved the law and order situation. “We are very familiar with political muscle flexing, protest … we ourselves are political players. We have no worries about answering political challenges. But when there is unrest in the capital, the Pakistani diaspora which is fighting for Pakistan is hindered in doing its job,” she said.
Dr Firdous said the government has accepted the right of the opposition to protest and it will fulfill its commitments in this regard. “I am therefore hopeful that Mullah Fazlur Rehman’s political adventure … his peaceful protest – to which his full right has been acknowledged by the government and given him space – will proceed as agreed and the commitments they [the JUI-F] have made will be upheld and they will not endanger the stability of the country,” she remarked.
Dr Firdous said Maulana Fazlur Rehman has embarked on an adventure which hopefully will end peacefully. “Their political grievances – which have no weight, which are baseless, emotional and are detached from reality – should not make them forget that they have a relationship with Pakistan which they should not try to weaken. They should not do anything that endangers national security or our national standing in the world,” she warned.
Interior Minister Ejaz Shah said a member of party of Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the protesters will not go back without resignation of the prime minister. “Let me tell them … the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan is out of question,” he asserted.
The minister said the government will facilitate the people who have gathered in Islamabad, adding that nobody will be allowed to challenge writ of the state. He said Islamabad has a history of marches, protests and sit-ins starting from the protest during the tenure of Iskander Mirza and then at different times. He said there is political tension between the government and the opposition because of the protest march. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided not to stop the protesters and tackle them politically and in a democratic manner. Some people have used Maulana Fazlur Rehman to target the government and the state and to create chaos, he observed. “Maulana has failed to turn his march into march of the opposition parties,” he observed.
The minister said the democratic government of PTI believes in talks with the opposition. A negotiating team headed by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak held negotiation with the opposition and a venue for the public meeting was decided, he said, adding that the government did not stop the protesters since the day they started their march. “Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been informed about the threat alerts,” he said, adding that Islamabad administration and JUI-F local leadership has signed a 37-point code of conduct for the protesters. The administration has cleared the venue of the public meeting and provided facilities of electricity, water and toilets, he said, adding that the government will ensure security of life and property of the citizens. To another question, Ejaz Shah said Prime Minister Imran Khan has clearly instructed that nobody should say anything about the health of others. There will be no politics on the health of others, he stressed.
