JUI-F seeks permission to build 6,000 toilets

Containers piled up near toll plaza, cops in civvies monitoring madrassas mosques attached with Maulana Fazl

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: The district administrations of the twin cities have started piling up containers near the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway toll plaza.

Cranes were seen unloading and arranging containers near the toll plaza on Friday. Sources said that a wall of containers will be built to stop the JUI-F Azadi march if the government issues any such orders.

As soon as the administration gets the message from the interior ministry, the containers will be stacked up to block the JUI-F’s march, sources said.

However, if the government issues no such order, the march will be allowed to move on without any hindrance, they added.

Temporary toilets

Mobilising thousands of people means they will need a place to go. Keeping in view the need to answer the call of nature, JUI-F leadership has asked the Islamabad district administration them to allow construction of around 6,000 temporary toilets.

Govt conditionally permits JUI-F’s Azadi march

People in the Azadi march will have to go to the bathroom, besides doing ablution for prayers five times a day, said JUI-F Islamabad chief Maulana Abdul Majeed Hazarvi, in a meeting with the Additional DC Islamabad Kamran Cheema.

Hazarvi has sought permission for setting up toilet boxes and ablution centres from D Chowk to Pims Hospital.

Cheema directed JUI-F to submit the amended application for entering the city on October 31, instead of earlier October 27.

No posters, banners in sight

With only a few days left for the Azadi march and protest sit-in announced by Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-F), there is no sight of banners, posters or panaflexs of the party in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Earlier during the week, a trader in Raja Bazar had hoisted a banner supporting the Azadi march, however, it was immediately seized by the district administration.

Traders told  The Express Tribune that plainclothesmen of special branch have fanned out in the markets keeping watch on the activities of printing presses in particular, besides caterers and sound system suppliers.

The district administration has reportedly directed all police stations and officials of municipal corporations to immediately remove any banner and poster related to the protest march and also arrest those involved in placing such publicity material in public places.

The JUI-F leaders and workers have decided not to put banners and posters as they are likely to be wasted in the hands of district authorities and law enforcement agencies.

Azadi March: Govt, opposition fail to settle on protest venue

Meanwhile, the police, intelligence agencies and district officers have also red-flagged printing presses not to offer urgent printing services for protest banners.

The administration has also chalked out a schedule of holidays for all public and private schools situated on Murree Road, Rawal Road, Islamabad Expressway and GT Road according to which educational institutions will remain closed from October 28. The orders for the holidays is expected to be notified today [October 26].

Strict monitoring

Administrators of madrassas have said that policemen in uniform and also in civvies have been making rounds of seminaries and mosques associated with JUI-F. “Some special branch cops even offer five times prayers in the targeted mosques to keep a tab on what is happening,” a mohtamim or administrator of a madrassa said.

Fearing arrests, several leaders of the Fazlur Rehman led party in Rawalpindi have gone into hiding.

The hotels, inns, lodges, and hostels of the city are also under the radar of law enforcement.

The district administration has also prepared detention orders for lawbreakers under 16 MPO (maintenance of public order) under which those disrupting pubic peace may be held in custody for a period of one to three months.

The police stations of the city have been directed to crackdown following the preparations and recce.

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