HYDERABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) organised a large rally here on Thursday against what it described as the foul language used by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan against its chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman, and warned that “2.5 million followers of the cleric were ready to lay a siege to Islamabad as and when signalled by the party leadership”.

Speaking to the participants in the rally, held outside the Radio Pakistan building on Miran Mohammad Shah Road, Sindh JUI-F general secretary Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro strongly condemned Mr Khan’s remarks as outrageous.

The rally participants adopted several resolutions, one of them demanding registration of a treason case against the PTI chairman and his arrest.

The resolutions also called for the arrest of all those responsible for the Model Town tragedy; institution of an inquiry by a judicial commission into alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections; and arrest of “foreigners who are staging dance parties in the name of Azadi march”.

Many of the rally participants had marched to Hyderabad from Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Thatta, Badin, Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro, Matiari, Tharparkar and other districts to join in the protest.

Dr Soomro said that the JUI-F had decided to counter “evil forces and their foul language against respected clerics as well as Islam”. He warned that such things would no more be tolerated.

“We will not let anyone introduce Jewish culture in Pakistan,” he declared.

He recalled that when students of Lal Masjid [Islamabad] had raised certain demands, and when similar things were witnessed in Swat, people were sprayed with bullets. He wondered why the government was silent today.

“A few thousand people are dancing in Islamabad and asking the prime minister to step down. But no action is taken against these people,” the JUI-F leader said.

Pointing at the large number of rally participants, Dr Soomro warned that if the JUI-F leadership allowed these people, they and two-and-a-half million seminary students would lay a siege to Islamabad.

Dr Soomro took a pledge from the rally participants that they would stage the show of strength in Islamabad by holding a sit-in.

He said that a few thousand people could not decide the destiny of 180 million people of the country.

He regretted that Islamic culture was being ridiculed at the Islamabad sit-in, and warned Imran Khan that “as long as JUI- F workers are alive, no one could dare taking on Islamic values”.

He alleged that defeated politicians had again become egoistic and wanted to enter corridors of power through the back door. “That’s why they are holding Islamabad hostage,” he insisted.

He deplored that Mr Khan had been violating laws but the law of the land was not being invoked. He insisted that Mr Khan be arrested and prosecuted under treason charges for taking on the state.

He asked the PTI chief to refrain from harming the federation under a foreign agenda.

Sindh JUI-F spokesman Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon observed that Mr Khan dared attacking Islam and clerics because only those who would preach Islam were subjected to extreme action.

The other resolutions adopted at the rally demanded jobs for the unemployed youth on merit; immediate recovery of ‘missing’ JUI-F activists Maulana Bakhtullah Pahore, Maulana Mahmood Bhairi and Maulana Abdul Rehman Panwhar; condemnation at the state level of Israeli aggression in Gaza and all possible assistance to Palestinians; ‘depoliticisation’ of the targeted operation in Karachi; cleansing the national economy of interest; declaring of Friday as the gazetted holiday; etc.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014