Fazl announces second round of anti-govt protests from Feb 23

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazl ur Rehman on Sunday announced that he will launch a campaign against the PTI-led government by holding public gatherings in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in the coming days.

The veteran politician made the announcement after holding a consultative meeting with allied parties in Lahore.

Fazl further said the JUI-F and its allied parties will hold a public gathering on February 23 in Karachi, in Islamabad on March 1 and March 19 in Lahore.

The announcement was in line with what JUI-F’s secretary general had stated last month.

In a press conference on January 30, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri had announced that his party would resume its campaign against the PTI-led federal government.

Also read: Neither trenches nor containers can stop JUI-F: Fazl

The campaign would resume after a failed Azadi March carried out by the JUI-F and other opposition parties last year.

In today’s press conference, Fazl while hitting out at the incumbent government said that the government has “gone home”, adding that there was no “writ of the government” at this point.

Fazl shared that in today’s meeting the parties deliberated on the formation of a constitutional and elected government.

“We stand by the stand we took on the first day,” stated the JUI-F leader, while sharing the details of the anti-government protests that they plan to launch.

The JUI-F leader claimed that the country was going through an economic crisis due to the government’s failed policies. “Inflation has taken away the right of life of the common man,” said Fazl. 

He noted that prices of petrol and gas were increasing at every level.

"A poor man is no longer capable of buying vegetables and household commodities,” claimed the veteran politician.

He alleged that people are being forced to “sell their kids and commit suicide”.

Also read: Go home, hand power back to the people: Fazl to govt

The JUI-F leader, without naming any party, noted that the opposition had become divided due to certain policies of major parties. He added that a divided opposition benefits the government.

Fazl when asked about PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz’s request to leave the country to see her father former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, stated that this should not be turned into a political case.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had said earlier this week that the schedule for Nawaz’s procedure had been changed twice owing to the absence of his daughter Maryam.