Government urges Maulana Fazl to refrain from staging a sit-in outside the Supreme Court

 

The federal government of Pakistan has requested Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leader, to change the location of their planned sit-in protest. The government urged the PDM to hold the demonstration at D-Chowk in Islamabad instead of outside the Supreme Court, where it was initially planned to be held.

 The protest was organized against Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial for allegedly providing VIP protocol to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan. Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar met with Maulana Fazl and requested him to avoid holding the sit-in outside the top court to prevent further unrest in the country.

Ishaq Dar also stated that the PDM should consider the current law and order situation, which has already been disrupted by the violent protests that followed the arrest of Imran Khan on May 9 from the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The government's arrest of the PTI chairman, acting on National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) warrant, in the Al-Qadir Trust case, led to several days of violent protests across the country that resulted in ten deaths and numerous injuries.

In response to the army installations being attacked, the army declared May 9 as a "dark chapter" in Pakistan's history. The internet services across the country remain suspended for more than five days following the violent protests.

 

The decision will now be made in the people's court: Maulana Fazlur Rehman

Rejecting their appeal, Fazl stated that caravans from all parts of the country had already departed for Islamabad and "we have announced [about sit-in] and now the decision will be made in the people’s court tomorrow [Monday]." He reassured the ministers that the protest will remain "peaceful" and the public will take to the streets on Monday.

Previously, the PDM leader had invited supporters of all political parties to join the protest and vowed to continue the sit-in outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad until Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial resigns.

Angry protesters are coming to Islamabad: Rana Sanaullah

Afterwards, during a press conference in Islamabad, Sanaullah revealed that the intelligence agencies had warned him about organizing the protest in the red zone or Constitutional Avenue region of the capital.

The agencies had evaluated that a large number of angry protesters were planning to attend the PDM protest and they were upset with "Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial due to the decisions being taken by the three-member bench" of the top court.

"We apprehend that if this demonstration takes place in the red zone area [then] it will be problematic for the administration to control the situation," he stated.

Due to this reason, the security chief stated that they had requested PDM leader Fazl to switch the location of the protest and mentioned that the latter had requested time to make the ultimate decision in this matter.

"We will meet him [Fazlur Rehman] again at 10 pm tonight," he added.

The preparations have been finalized by JUI-F

After the JUI-F announced their protest sit-in outside the Supreme Court, workers began to move, with workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) leaving on Monday morning.

Maulana Ahmad Ali Darwish, a JUI-F leader, spoke to journalists and said that caravans of JUI-F workers would depart from each district according to their schedules, and all convoys would reach Haklah Interchange on Monday afternoon.

Darwish also stated that the convoy from Peshawar city would leave from the JUI-F center at 9:00 am on Monday morning. Once they reach the Haklah Interchange, all convoys from KP would move to the apex court as a central convoy.