LARKANA: Secretary-general of the Sindh chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro on Friday urged the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and institution of a sedition case against him.

Speaking to party activists and supporters at a seminary, Dr Soomro slammed the PTI chief for pouring scorn on JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and warned that his unparliamentary language and wild allegations would no more be tolerated.

Accusing Mr Khan of pursuing the agenda of Jews to undermine democracy and the country, the JUI-F leader warned him against continuing his struggle to convert Pakistan into an un-Islamic state.

Call for arrest, sedition case against Imran

The former senator declared that his party would safeguard the country’s Islamic status and never allow European culture to flourish here.

He urged the government to restrain Mr Khan from making provocative speeches and maligning religious and political leaders. If he did not stop, the JUI-F would call its activists and supporters across the country to Islamabad to counter the PTI onslaught, he said.

Meanwhile, the Sunni Tehreek, Larkana division, in its meeting on Friday criticised Imran Khan and (Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief) Allama Tahirul Qadri for what it described as “using women and children as a shield to escape arrest or action”.

It urged them and all other politicians to work for the solidarity and integrity of Pakistan.

“The strings of the so-called ‘Azadi march’ and ‘revolution march’ are being pulled from abroad,” the meeting alleged.

Local ST leaders Maulana Ali Nawaz Qasmi, Abdul Rasheed Qasmi, Abdul Rasheed Sangi and others told the meeting that the PTI and QAT had been violating the sanctity of national institutions by staging their sit-ins in the sensitive zone of the capital for many days.

SUKKUR: The JUI-F organised rallies in Sukkur, Jacobabad, Ghotki and other districts against Imran Khan’s remarks about Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Participants in the rallies strongly condemned PTI women workers and supporters for signing and dancing in the streets of Islamabad as being shown live by TV channels.

Mufti Saud Afzal Halejvi, Maulana Ubedullah Bhutto, Syed Haroon Shah, Maulana Abdul Haq Mahar and other scholars leading a rally taken out from Madressa Mazharul Uloom at Manzilgah in Sukkur, said that Mr Khan’s remarks gravely offended JUI-F supporters.They also condemned the PTI and QAT for crippling the capital by their sit-ins which, they said, would only weaken the country, its economy and democracy, besides increasing unrest across the country.

Nobody could be allowed to derail democracy and weaken the country, they said.

They said Mr Khan must stop his spiteful remarks about the JUI-F chief and other respectable personalities at once or else he’d face the wrath of the masses.

They warned that the PTI chief would have to pay in the same coin if he did not restrain himself.

At another rally, taken out in Jacobabad, JUI-F district leaders Dr AG Ansari, Abdul Jabbar Rind, Hamadullah Ansari and others called for an immediate end to ‘un-Islamic and unconstitutional shows’ in Islamabad.

MIRPURKHAS: The JUI-F Mirpurkhas chapter organised a demonstration outside the local press club to condemn ‘insulting remarks’ against their party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman by PTI chief Imran Khan.

The participants carried placards and banners inscribed with slogans against PTI and its chief. Raising slogans against Mr Khan, they demanded apology from him.

Speaking to the media, their leaders said no patriotic Pakistani could support the unconstitutional demands being made by the PTI and PAT to end their siege of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014