ISLAMABAD - The JUI-F’s Azadi March Plan-B is no more than a face-saving exercise as the party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had no other way to end the sit-in in the federal capital, sources in the party said yesterday.
They said that Fazl from the inception of Azadi March from Karachi had no plan to extend the protest or sit-in in the federal capital for more than four days.
According to them, opposition parties including PPP and PML-N were not in favour of any sit-in in Islamabad as they just wanted to support the JUI-F chief for a one-day Azadi March against the PTI government.
The sources in Rehbar Committee further revealed that the opposition parties had reservations over the way Maulana Fazl had adopted for ousting the prime minister or toppling the government.
“However, following the failure of opposition parties to convince Maulana Fazl to delay the protest or change the way of protest against the government, Maulana stood firm on his earlier stance and pulled the crowd to Islamabad,” said the sources.
According to the sources, Fazl had a fear of being isolated in the Azadi March protest as many of the opposition parties were reluctant to join the sit-in.
The sources elaborated that apparently the Rehbar Committee seemed united, but in fact it was facing cracks as PPP and PML-N had critical reservations over many issues with the JUI-F.
However, according to PPP’s Farhatullah Babar besides many other reservations the Rehbar Committee was not happy over Maulana Fazl’s meetings with the Chaudhry brothers.
He said that they had asked JUI-F to disclose the content of the meetings with Chaudhry brothers to the Rehbar Committee as the meetings had taken place without even informing the Rehbar Committee.
On the other hand, according to a senior leader of JUI-F, if the Plan-B of Azadi March was not a face-saving exercise then Maulana Fazl should have implemented it in Punjab as their votes were allegedly stolen there.
He further said that they have got enough votes in Balochistan and KP and still the JUI-F leadership was trying to create hurdles for people in both these provinces where they had got enough mandate.
He informed The Nation that the future of Plan-B seemed very dismal as they will get nothing out of it. He claimed that the JUI-F workers in very less number were taking part in the so-called Plan-B.
He stated that the party leaders were making phone calls to the workers to join the protest and block the roads and it was very embarrassing for the party’s whole leadership.