The stage is set for what the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders claim would be a mammoth public rally to be attended by around one million people in Peshawar on Sunday.
“Around one million people are expected to attend the Islam Zindabad Conference,” JUI-F spokesperson Haji Abdul Jalil Jan told The Express Tribune. Jan said that preparations were complete for the meeting for which the party has been working on for a few months. Around 5,000 volunteers will also be deployed for security purposes.
The spokesperson claimed that a stage made out of 24 containers had been prepared, while about 25,000 chairs were arranged for in the open ground, with more chairs being placed in the meeting place at the Motorway Chowk.
Jan said that party leaders, including chief Fazlur Rehman, Abdul Ghaffoor Haideri, Mohammad Khan Sherani, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, and Gul Naseeb Khan would speak on the occasion.
The party vigorously advertised the public meeting at prominent places across the provincial capital, with activists riding on motorcycles to announce the rally, while a majority of the local newspapers published advertisements for it.
Big meetings amid attacks
The JUI-F’s public meeting is taking place amid heightened activity of religious parties. The Jamaat-e- Islami (JI) had arranged a massive rally in Battakhela on Mach 21, claiming it to be the biggest public gathering in the history of Malakand.
This was seen as an attempt to reassert itself in Malakand, which has been a stronghold of its power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), in the aftermath of the crippling militant insurgency and a series of military operations.
Interestingly, a meeting of the Awami National Party (ANP) came under attack in Nowshera around a month back, while the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao’s (PPP-S) chief also met a similar fate earlier this month in Charsadda.
However, religious parties remain active in arranging political meetings and rallies without fear of such attacks, and continue making efforts to reach out to the people in the remote areas of K-P.
Both the JUI-F and JI, allies in the former Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA), have failed to resume their alliance. Fazl indirectly warned the JI that they could lose public support, if they continued to rebuff his efforts for an electoral alliance.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (23)
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Mulana zindabad, we r proud of u qadam barhaw mulana ham tumhare sath hai
maulana fazlu rrehman is big leadar of islam.and he is not cropt.
"If you blieve in islam then vote for me".Zia-ul Haq used it with great effect, maulana knows fully well ,how to do that too.
Molana Fazlul Rehman is the greatest Leader of Islam. We proud & bleive of him.
@MUNIB:mr Munib With draw your words you are absolutely in wrong way you are away from islam by saying in this manner Haddes: Al ulama-o- warastul Anbiyaa,,if you are muslim then will not refuse from any hadees-e- nabvi (SAW) more over you are a kid don't know the politics of Pakistan, on whats way the politics are going on, Mulana is a world leader know more than you. don't comment any person for the hortness. yor brother of Islam Islam Zindabad
Never have I seen such an abuse of peoples beliefs for self gain. They were bad before, but this is a new low.
@V. C. Bhutani: Bhutani Sahib, you have said it all in your last para '' participants are often ........ and I agree with you.
In fact Pakistan is in danger but only from mullas
The irony of the Maulan's statement is sickening...
Islam Zindabad but not JUI, people wont give u votes on the name of Islam now, they have seen u already
"Around 5,000 volunteers will also be deployed for security purposes."
And we have been telling people that Islam is a Religion of Peace !!
JUI (F) has damaged Pashtun social fabric tremendously, at the behest of military. However, the ultimate loser is going to be JUI and its patrons in GHQ. I can bet on that.
Mulana knows the art of politics. He want to cash Islam for his votes. JI and PTI want to cash Anti-Americanism for votes.
this slogan will not work this time........shame on JUIF
I don't know whether to laugh at these people or cry for my country. Any suggestions guys??
Janab Aftab Kenneth Wilson Saheb, This is nothing new. This has been going on as long as one remembers. As a little schoolboy before Independence I saw that there used to be all kinds of demonstrations which were organized by various outfits. As a child I had no understanding of what was going on. Coming from Rawalpindi (born 1940), I saw how people used mazhab/dharm for various purposes. A little later, we saw the Rawalpindi riots from April 1947 onwards. I just couldn’t understand why people were out to kill each other. I remember rival armed gangs on College Road outside Gordon College. Earlier I had seen shakhas organized by RSS, whose name I did not know in those days. An eccentric chap used to go around the streets with a garland of photo-frames with photographs of revolutionaries (called terrorists in British records, as I found much later). After Independence I remember hearing calls like “Panth khatre mein” shouted by Sikhs in Indian Punjab. Much later the very same RSS, whose name now I knew, still organized shakhas and shouted “Dharm khatre mein”. Occasionally, even today we hear faint slogan in India sometimes “Islam khatre mein”. Nobody takes that khatra too seriously. Life goes on. But these so-called leaders of this or that religious group go on hoodwinking their followers, who in their complete ignorance, throng to their meetings. Participants are often uneducated or unlettered illiterates who cannot distinguish between Geeta, Quran, Granth Saheb, or The Bible, much less understand their contents or message. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, India, 25 Mar 2012, 1548 IST
i congrate JUI on a grant meeting in KPK. I m also thank fazal in pesh
I fail to understand why Islam is in danger.There are around 57 Muslim countries in the world but they don't feel any danger why only in Pakistan? This slogan reminds us all of Zia era when this was a popular slogan. Religion must not be used while forming foreign relationships/policies. Please stop playing with the sentiments of the people who are already divided and sub-divided on so many thorny issues. If Islam is in danger than it is only in our own country due to multiple interpretations from different school of thoughts..
The GHQ kids trying their best to show strength
There is no fear to Islam. Maulana wants to cash religion for his political aspirations.