Opposition caravans set to leave Loralai tomorrow

Preparations for ‘Azadi march’ from Balochistan complete

QUETTA: Opposition parties in Balochistan have announced their participation in Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Azadi march and vowed to send ‘the selected prime minister’ packing.

This announcement was made on Thursday at an all parties’ conference (APC) in which leaders of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Awami National Party (ANP), National Party (NP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ehl-e-Hadees took part.

“The Azadi march would begin from October 27. On that day, rallies for solidarity with Kashmiris would be staged across the province after which we would commence our march towards Islamabad against selected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government,” JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Wasay said.

“All preparations and plans have been finalised with consensus of opposition parties,” he added.

Punjab police prepare for JUI-F’s ‘Azadi March’

He hoped that the ‘selected prime minister’ would tender his resignation before the march reaches Gujranwala. “If the cowardly government arrested the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, then we would shift the march’s leadership to an allied party as the march would continue till the ouster of the PM.”

The JUI-F’s Balochistan chief, who was flanked by former minister Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal, MPA Asghar Khan Achakzai, former speaker Raheela Durrani, PPP’s Haji Ali Madad Jattak and NP’s Secretary General Jan Muhammad Buledi, warned the provincial government against trying to stop the march.

“Opposition parties would bring life in Balochistan to a standstill if the government tried to stop the Azadi March.” He said the march would simultaneously commence its journey from Sukkur and Loralai that will culminate in the federal capital on October 31.

The NP Secretary General Jan Muhammad Buledi slammed the PTI government for curbing freedom of speech. People of Balochistan, he said, would join the march for the supremacy of Constitution and parliament.

“The incompetent government has ruined the poor through taxes and inflation and has no right to rule this country anymore,” Buledi added.

SIC, Ulema distance themselves from Azadi march

Ziaratwal said on October 31, the leadership of all opposition parties would address the protesters outside the Parliament House because the ‘selected’ government has been violating the Constitution.

“Pakistan has been isolated in the international community due to flawed policies of the PTI government. The march would be the last nail in the federal government’s coffin,” he claimed.

The ANP provincial President Asghar Khan Achakzai, who formed an alliance with the BAP government in Balochistan, said the ANP always stood with democratic powers in Pakistan. “Our leadership has decided to join the Azadi march in order to steer Pakistan out of the current economic quagmire.”

The PML-N’s Raheela Durrani said the PTI government neglected the health condition of former PM Nawaz Sharif. “The PM has gone too far in pursuing political vendetta as he refused to provide health facilities to Nawaz Sharif. The opposition parties are on the page and agree that this government would be hazardous for Pakistan. That is why we are marching toward Islamabad for its removal,” she added.

The PPP’s Ali Madad Jattak vowed to fully participate in JUI-F’s march to oust the prime minister, adding that the Azadi march would succeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2019.