PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has asked the government to register a sedition case against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader Tahirul Qadri for violating constitution.

Addressing a meeting of JUI-F workers in Khyber Bazaar here on Sunday, he alleged that Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan were foreign agents, who wanted to destabilise the country to appease their ‘masters’.

He said that the two parties paralysed the entire system by staging sit-in in Islamabad to gain powers through backdoor. He said that all the main stream political parties were united to foil such attempts.

Fazlur Rehman terms both the leaders foreign agents, who want to destabilise the country

Mr Rehman asked the government to register a sedition case against Imran and Qadri for violating constitution. He said that PTI chief failed to get resignation from his own party members but he was demanding resignation from the prime minister.

“Qadri is claiming to bring revolution in the country but no good can be expected from him as he himself has admitted allowing Christians into his mosques and seminaries,” the JUI-F chief said, adding that the followers of Pope could not serve the purpose of Islam.

“We will take all possible steps for protection of constitution, assemblies and the government. We will prove our strength whenever needed,” Mr Rehman said. He added that both the parties should wind up the protest as workers had already returned homes.

He said that the workers of PTI and PAT had enough of the prolonged and illogical sit-ins and they were no longer interested to damage the country’s economy. He said that leaders of the two parities had repeatedly violated agreements with the government’s negotiating teams and created uncertainty.

The JUI-F chief said that raising slogans against rigging was aimed at hollowing basis of the country and destabilising the system. The nation knew what the protestors had planned for appeasing their foreign masters, he added.

Appreciating the federal government, he said that formation of judicial commission was the only solution to the issue so that it could remove the unrest. PTI should also admit rigging of elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr Rehman said.

JUI-F provincial emir Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan and general secretary Maulana Shujaul Mulk also spoke on the occasion. They said that the protesting parties were spreading vulgarity by organising dancing parties during the sit-ins.

“We can easily gather such gatherings anywhere in the country to prove our strength against PTI and PAT but the party has not yet taken the decision,” they said and asked the protesters to stop exploiting poor people for their own purposes.

Strict security measures were taken during the meeting and heavy contingents of police were deployed at the venue. All the link roads were closed by erecting barbed wire and cemented blocks to check movement of the suspected persons.

The meeting was scheduled at 11am but it started in the evening which caused serious inconvenience to the people owing to closure of the roads and suspension of traffic.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014