PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the ongoing movement of the opposition parties would culminate with the ouster of the “corrupt and fake government”.

Addressing a public meeting here on Sunday, he said that their ‘Azadi March’ had shaken the government and the ‘rejected’ prime minister would resign very soon. The public meeting was part of the Plan-C of the anti-government ‘Azadi March’ which was kicked off from Karachi on October 27.

Local leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and Qaumi Watan Party also addressed the meeting. The venue was decorated with the JUI-F flags and banners.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said: “Traitors who betrayed the people of Kashmir have no right to rule this country and the ongoing movement will end at the resignation of the government.” He alleged that the government had struck a ‘secret deal’ on Kashmir.

JUI-F chief slams govt for turning Peshawar into ‘ruins’

He said that the opposition had launched the movement for the supremacy of Constitution and parliament and to rid the nation of ‘corrupt and rejected’ government. He said that the opposition’s movement was nearing to achieve its objective as the government was sinking.

Criticising economic policies of the government, the JUI-F chief said that the Asian Development Bank had provided $1 billion “emergency loan” to avert crises.

“The government has received emergency loan from the bank,” he said, adding that for the first time the State Bank of Pakistan had gone into Rs1 billion deficit.

He said that the ruling party had claimed creation of 10 million jobs, but ‘rejected’ prime minister had turned away from his promise. Instead of creating 10 million jobs the government deprived 2.5 million people of jobs during the last one year, he said.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that there was a perception that the government was enjoying support of the national and international establishments, but the opposition had ended its arrogance through the ‘Azadi March’, adding that his party would not tolerate this fake government. He said that the opposition was fully united and would continue its movement.

He also blamed the PTI government for converting Peshawar into ruins as the Bus Rapid Transit project was yet to complete. He said that the government had failed to plant 800 million trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and how it could be expected to plant 10 billion trees at the national level and demanded accountability of the people responsible for the disaster.

The JUI-F chief said that they had launched war against the ‘selected’ government and there was no looking back. He said that sparing the government amounted to backtracking from the agenda aiming to topple the government.

The people wanted removal of the present government and installation of a government of those who enjoyed public support, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2019