It’s treasonous to incite people to arrest PM, says Aitzaz

PPP leader says Azadi March is JUI-F’s show, his party can’t exclude women and use religion card

KARACHI: Veteran politician of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Aitzaz Ahsan has condemned as ‘treasonous’ a statement from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in which he appears to be inciting his followers to arrest the prime minister.

The politico-religious cleric – who is camping on a sprawling ground in the capital along with thousands of his supporters – on Friday set a “two-day ultimatum” for Imran Khan to resign or else people would swarm the Prime Minister House to arrest him.

Undeterred by the so-called ‘Azadi March’, PM Imran has snubbed the demand for his resignation, while his ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has decided to take Maulana Fazl to the court over his “treasonous statement”.

The JUI-F enjoys the backing of major political parties – the PPP and the PML-N in particular – as Bilawal Bhutto and Shehbaz Sharif, among others, shared the stage with Maulana Fazl on Friday and offered him their unequivocal support.

Ahsan, however, disowned the Islamabad sit-in, saying it was JUI-F’s political show. The PPP can never stage a gathering where women are denied entry or where the ‘religion card’ is used for political gain, he added.

“Is it not treasonous to say that a lashkar could arrest the prime minister irrespective of who he is?” Aitzaz asked while speaking in a television talk show on Saturday. “If this happens, then it might lead to civil war and a third force could step in,” he warned.

He didn’t name the ‘third force’, but he is believed to be referring to the military which in the past had to intervene to stop the country from sliding into political chaos.

Aitzaz held out an assurance that the PPP would never support any irrational move of inciting people to arrest the prime minister.

The veteran PPP leader said the Rahbar Committee of opposition parties should discuss why women were not allowed to participate in the protest and why the ‘religion card’ was being used for political gains.

The committee should also take up the Maulana’s statement that people could arrest the prime minister. “I’m not speaking in support of the PTI. I’m just voicing my opinion,” he added. He said that by making such statements the Maulana appeared to be leading the country towards chaos.

The military has already warned that nobody would be allowed to create instability as the country could not afford chaos and anarchy, especially at a time when it is facing security challenges on both eastern and western fronts.