Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of his Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam faction, said Sunday that his party will not hold talks with the government’s committee over Azadi March.
The JUI-F told reporters in Mardan that the Rehbar Committee of the opposition parties will decide whether to hold talks with the government or not.
Therefore, JUI-F has canceled a meeting with a government committee a day after the party agreed to meet the delegation led by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to holds talks over the anti-government protest.
On Saturday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government reached out to the JUI-F for the first round of talks in a bid to stop the religio-political party from marching on to the federal capital on October 31.
At the time, JUI-F senior leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had said that the party would see what the government would offer them but the final decision on holding the march rested with Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
He added that the JUI-F could refer the government’s proposals to the Rahber Committee but it would continue to stick to its demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In the latest development, the JUI-F said the final decision on whether to hold talks with the government would be taken by the Rehbar Committee in a meeting on Oct 21, as party chief Fazlur Rehman was against taking a unilateral decision over the issue.
On October 16, the government had constituted a committee, headed by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, to hold talks with the JUI-F.
Maulana Fazl is unhappy over the press conferences of ministers and said that they were issuing threats in press conference and not talking about talks with his party.
The sources said Maulana Fazlur Rehman has contacted leaders of the opposition parties to take them into confidence and told them that any decision to hold talks rests with the Rahbar Committee.
The sources said that the reports of talks were creating the impression as if the JUI-F was directly negotiating with the government. They said that the JUI-F has convened a meeting of the Rahbar Committee on October 22 at the residence of Akram Durrani where the final decision would be made.