Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has extended his two-day deadline for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation by 24 hours and called an all parties conference (APC) to devise a future course of action in connection with the Azadi March.
The decision, announced by the firebrand cleric at his party’s sit-in in the capital on Sunday night, was made at a party meeting at his residence earlier in the day.
“We have called leaders of all political parties tomorrow and will reach a consensus decision regarding the future course of action,” he told his followers, and added that he had ‘plan A, B and C’. “This is the biggest rally in Islamabad’s history … and I believe chances of witnessing such a massive rally again are thin,” he remarked.
The JUI-F chief said opposition parties bagged more votes than the treasury benches collectively despite massive rigging in the last year’s elections. “We are told to go to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is more helpless than us … and parliamentary committee, formed over poll rigging, failed to hold a single meeting in the past year.”
He said when the ECP couldn’t even decide the five-year-old case of PTI’s foreign funding then how it could take up the matter of rigging.
Lashing out at the government, he said those who accuse others of corruption “are themselves the most corrupt”. “This government has to go … and they don’t have any other option but to give the masses right to elect their true representatives,” he said. “We’ll shut the whole country … this caravan won’t stop until achieving its target.”
Commenting on the military’s alleged backing of the Imran Khan government, he said, “Our army, which is respectable to us, will have to decide once and for all that it has nothing to do with elections”.
Fazl said every institution had to remain within its constitutional ambit. “It’s not just me but the Supreme Court chief justice is also saying the same,” he added.
He said that democratic institutions were made redundant and masses rather than relying on their votes look somewhere else for government. “We’ll have to give respect to vote,” he added.
The JUI-F chief asked his workers to trust their leadership rather than social media and those mending the public opinion. He also said the international media had acknowledged the huge participation and exemplary discipline at the Azadi March. Fazl also lashed out at Imran Khan, saying that he didn’t need to learn politics from him. “Do you expect this novice to teach us politics? Now people born with a golden spoon in their mouths will teach us politics, and that too, the politics of the poor?” he asked.
“Listen Imran, this sea of people will keep coming at you and wash you away with it,” he roared amid thundering applause and sloganeering in his favour. “You’re [PM Imran] nothing more than a street goon … unfortunately people like you are imposed on us as rulers,” he said.
“If this flood decides to move towards the Prime Minister House, no one can dare to stop it… This movement and flood of people will force you out of the prime minister’s seat.”
He saluted his followers with teary eyes and said he knew they were ready to stay here even for years if he would ask them to. “I salute your passion.”
While hinting towards another point, Fazl said that D-Chowk was quite a small place for such a gathering. “H-9 is an open space, D-Chowk is quite smaller for a huge gathering like this,” he said, and added that the final decision with regards to the future course of action would be made after consultation with all opposition parties. “But one thing I can promise you is that we will go forward and not backwards.”
