The federal government on Sunday urged ruling alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to change the venue of their planned Protest from outside the Supreme Court to D-Chowk in Islamabad.
Fazlur Rehman who is also head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), had announced staging a “peaceful” sit-in outside the Top court on Monday (tomorrow) against Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial for “facilitating” and giving “VIP protocol” to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.
Fazlur Reman said that convoys from all over the country have left for Islamabad: “We have announced [about sit-in] and now the decision will be made in people’s court tomorrow [Monday].”
He assured the ministers that the protest will remain “peaceful”. The PDM chairman said that the nation will take to the street tomorrow.
After the announcement of the JUI-F protest sit-in outside the Supreme Court, the workers started their movements with the main departure of the workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Monday morning.
Talking to journalists today, JUI-F leader Maulana Ahmad Ali Darwish said the caravans of the JUI-F workers will depart from each district according to their schedule and all convoys will reach Haklah Interchange on Monday afternoon.
The convoy from Peshawar city will depart from the JUI-F centre at 9.00am on Monday morning, Darwish added. After reaching Haklah Interchange, all convoys from KP will go to the apex court in the form of a central convoy, he added.
Intelligence Agencies Warning
Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar earlier today called on pdm chief Maulana Fazl and urged him not to stage the sit-in outside the top court to prevent further tension in the country.
“The government wants the PDM to hold the protest at the D-Chowk,” Ishaq Dar said, adding that law and order situation was already created a fuss.
He made the remarks while referring to the countrywide violent protests that were triggered by Imran Khan’s arrest from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on 9th May. The Rangers personnel had taken the PTI chairman into custody from IHC premises acting on National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) warrant in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said intelligence agencies had cautioned him about staging the protest in the red zone or Constitutional Avenue area of the federal capital.
“We fear that if this protest takes place in the red zone area [then] it will be difficult for the administration to handle the situation,” he added.
For this reason, the interior Minister said they had requested PDM chief Fazlur Rehman to change the venue of the protest demonstration and added that the latter had sought time to take the final decision in this regard.
“We will meet him [Fazlur Rehman] again at 10pm tonight,” he added.
Remember that at least 15 people were killed and dozens of others sustained injuries during the last three days-long protests with internet services is remain suspended for more than five days across the country.
After the supporters attacked army installations, the army declared the 9th May — the day when chaos gripped the nation following the PTI chief’s arrest — would go down in history as a “dark chapter”.