PESHAWAR: In sharp contrast with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl Rehman, who is adamant to send the government packing through Azadi March, one of his close aides has said that the single point agenda of the protest movement is chucking out Prime Minister Imran Khan from power.

Talking to Dawn here, the close aide to Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that JUI-F did not want to derail the democratic process through the march. The party has planned to march on Islamabad on October 27.

“We have nothing against the ruling PTI. We don’t care if Shah Mahmood Qureshi or Mohammad Mian Soomro becomes the prime minister as long as Imran Khan goes. It’s him we want out of power,” he said.

He said that formation of national government or new elections would be acceptable to JUI-F if the prime minister stepped down. “Removal of cancerous tumor is now inevitable and those, who have brought Imran to power, have now admitted that he can’t deliver,” he added.

The strategy of 0JUI-F is to amass maximum number of people in Islamabad and stay there till the resignation of prime minister. Massive mobilisation drive to motivate workers for the march is underway and roughly 80,000 volunteers dressed in light-brown colour will be deployed for security and to facilitate marchers in Islamabad.

Unlike JUI-F chief, his lieutenant wants only removal of PM instead of toppling govt

“People will not disperse in Islamabad and there will be no negotiations with the government or the ruling party till the resignation of Imran Khan,” said the aide.

The rally held in Peshawar on July 25 gave boost to the morale of JUI-F leadership, expecting massive attendance of workers in Islamabad’s march too. Donation collection drive is underway and Rs1.5 million has been collected from each district for the march.

Students of over 1,800 seminaries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, having affiliation with the party, will be also transported to Islamabad. Insiders said that trade and labour unions like All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union and Pakistan Bar Council have assured their participation in the march.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman is accommodative and pragmatic in his political outlook and he has taken the toughest decision of his political career. His late father Maulana Mufti Mahmood had launched agitation against populist prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977. He (Mufti) was head of Pakistan National Alliance, a conglomerate of liberal, nationalist and religious parties.

The PNA had accused PPP government of rigging in general elections but used Nizam-i-Mustafa card to topple the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The PNA’s movement ended in martial law and Gen Ziaul Haq became the chief martial law administrator.

Unlike his father, Maulana Rehman is using the card of religion to dislodge Imran Khan without using religious rhetoric. He rejected election results from the very beginning and asked other opposition parties not to take oath of the assemblies.

Initially, he tactfully used religious card against the PTI government when Imran Khan accommodated economist Dr Atif Mian in the Economic Advisory Council.

The government was forced to remove Atif Mian from the body and he went back to America. JUI-F organised Khatme Nabuwat Million rallies across the country to level ground for Islamabad lockdown.

Maulana Rehman’s aide said that wrong perception had been created that the party was using religious card to topple the government. “Our demands are under the ambit of the law and the party has conveyed it to Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,” he said.

“One of the demands is protection of fundamental human rights and freedom of press,” he said, adding that PPP and PML-N had their own “compulsions” and both parties were applying time buying tactics to delay the march.

JUI-F has printed donation receipt books of Rs100, Rs500 and Rs1,000 for fundraising. The receipt carries total eight demands on its backside. It says that objectives of the Azadi March is protection of blasphemy law, supremacy of Islam and identity, foiling conspiracies of Ahmadis against Islam, controlling price hike, restoration of dignity of the state institutions and dislodging the government.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2019