JUI-F’s Akram Durrani, while addressing a news conference flanked by other member of the committee, said, “We don’t refuse to engage in talks but the government’s attitude is not appropriate”.
Besides resignations from the parliament and strike, blocking highways and locking down the whole country at the district level and all other options necessary for any movement are also being considered, said Durrani.
“We have signed an agreement with DC Islamabad and stand by it.”
He said that any irresponsible action by non-democratic forces would be against the national interest. “All opposition parties are unanimous on this point and oppose it,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal said he was shocked to know that Prime Minister Imran Khan had waived off the mandatory requirement of passport for the visiting Sikh pilgrims from India.“We welcome Sikh pilgrims, who are set to visit the country for Baba Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary next week, but how can an Indian citizen cross an international border and enter the Pakistani territory without the basic document… it means you are changing the status of that territory,” he added.Earlier in the day, the government rejected the opposition’s demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Imran as the Azadi March protest in the federal capital entered the second day.
Head of government’s negotiating committee, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, said that Prime Minister Imran’s “resignation was out of the question”.
The reply by the government comes after the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had demanded the PM’s resignation within two days on Friday night.
The defence minister further warned the leaders of opposition parties that the government will not show leniency if they backtracked from the earlier agreement reached with the government.
Thousands of JUI-F workers descended on the capital late on October 31 night after their five-day marathon journey which set off from Karachi on October 27
Security remains tight in Islamabad with the government and diplomatic sector – just a few kilometres from the rally site – sealed off, and roads blocked shipping containers.
Afghan Taliban flags: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that delegations of Afghan Taliban are officially welcomed in Islamabad by the PTI government therefore criticising presence of a few such flags is baseless and an attempt to malign the Azadi March.
“With presidential protocol, the United States engaged with Afghan Taliban in peace talks… and with the same protocol they were welcomed in Moscow as well. And you ask us why a boy carried their flag in our rally,” he said while addressing the anti-government rally that entered its second day in the capital on Saturday.
“Where the world has headed to and where you are standing… we will also be right to consider this as an attempt to do a negative propaganda against the march,” he said and warned the Islamabad administration against creating chaos.
