ISLAMABAD: After the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has also announced that it will hold its own “decisive” long march on Islamabad in March.

The announcement was made by JI secretary general Amirul Azeem after presiding over a meeting of the party office-bearers from northern Punjab at the party’s Rawalpindi office on Wednesday.

The JI secretary general said the party had decided to hold anti-government long marches at tehsil, district and provincial level from Feb 6 which would continue till March, when a “final and decisive” long march towards the capital would be held against the government.

He said that the party had already made planning for the protest campaign during which 101 sit-ins would be arranged in various parts of the country.

The PDM had already given the call for a long march to Islamabad on the Pakistan Day to protest against the unprecedented price-hike and inflation in the country.

Besides the PDM, the other opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has also given a separate call for a long march from Sindh to Islamabad on February 27.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the PDM component parties in Islamabad on Tuesday, PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman had expressed his annoyance over the PPP’s decision to hold its own long march.

On the other hand, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari while talking to the reporters last week had said that he believed that two different long marches would create more difficulties for the government.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2022