Opposition rift deepens ahead of Feb 8 protests

Cracks within the opposition camp have deepened ahead of the planned February 8 protests, as Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Aeen Pakistan (TTAP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) traded blame over the lack of coordination on Friday, while both sides insisted that a broader alliance could still be possible.

JUI-F spokesperson said TTAP should have taken JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman into confidence before announcing its February 8 activity, if it genuinely wanted to keep the party by its side.

He shifted the blame for the divide in the opposition benches to PTI, while maintaining that an alliance between the two sides in the near future remained a possibility.

TTAP, on the other hand, claimed that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, despite being on the opposition benches, was not serious about joining a multiparty opposition alliance, citing the negative-sum political equation between him and PTI, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Recently, both sides announced their protest plans for February 8, with JUI-F's countrywide protest deliberately designed to avoid clashing with TTAP's activities.

JUI-F spokesperson Maulana Aslam Ghouri said that JUI-F, under the banner Awan Nai Medan, will hold protests across the country, one in each provincial capital in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, while in Sindh, protests will be staged at district headquarters as well.

The main event will be in Rawalpindi, where JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will address the gathering.

Asked whether the party would hold marches or rallies, he said they would only stage marches, as holding rallies would disrupt TTAP's countrywide wheel jam.

In response to the question of why the JUI-F did not simply join TTAP for a greater impact, he said the party's doors were always open, but TTAP had never shown genuine intent. From its first meeting to the recent announcement of the February 8 plan, he said, TTAP did not take the JUI-F chief into confidence.

He said that while both sides broadly agree on the issue of massive rigging in the 2024 elections, JUI-F believes PTI must also acknowledge that the 2018 elections were rigged in the same manner, and that rigging also occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024.

He said these were the two primary points of disagreement between JUI-F and TTAP.

Asked about any recent interaction between TTAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he said the JUI-F chief was currently in South Africa and would return on February 6.

Former Sindh governor and TTAP member Muhammad Zubair said Maulana was not interested in joining hands for a joint opposition movement.

He claimed that Maulana was fully aware that the success of any opposition movement would bring back Imran Khan and PTI, a party that, he said, had dented his political ambitions in K-P.

Zubair rejected JUI-F's claims that the 2018 and 2024 elections, as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa polls, were rigged, calling them far from reality. He said massive and naked rigging in 2024 had no parallel, and claimed that K-P results were kept unsullied only to give the elections some global credibility.