As sultry summer days draw to a close, it appears political temperatures might rise as winter sets in. This is because Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) is preparing to march to the federal capital to force the government’s resignation in October.
The party has kicked off a fundraising campaign across Khyber Pakhtunhwa (KP), is finalising security arrangements, and is mobilising crowds for a march good enough to build pressure on the government. The party is claiming that it will gather 1.5 million people in the capital city to lock it down.
“We have completed security arrangements. Ansarul Islam (JUI-F’s volunteer wing that provides security for its rallies) are ready and we are working on raising funds,” JUI-F Information Secretary Jalil Jan told The Friday Times.
A 12-member committee of party leaders is visiting districts across KP and meeting with party formations at district levels to make arrangements for the march.
Insiders say corner meetings for this purpose are also being held across the province. “Yesterday, we held a corner meeting in which we delegated responsibilities to our union council leaders,” said a party representative in Buner. He said that more of the party’s district-level meetings will be held next week and their target was to generate Rs3 million in donations for the march from Buner.
“Donation targets for bigger districts like Peshawar and Mardan are higher,” he said. “It is a sit-in and we can’t say how long it will take but we have to be there until the government agrees to address our demands.”
The date for the Azadi March is awaiting final responses from other political parties in the opposition, particularly the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
After the PML-N, JUI-F is the only political party that has street power near Islamabad
“The final date for the long march will be announced in a joint presser with the PML-N,” Jan said. “They (the PML-N) asked us to wait until September 30 after which plans for the lockdown will be announced.”
According to Jalil, the Awami National Party (ANP) is supporting the march and will be accompanying JUI-F in the march. “PPP’s activists will be participating but senior leadership will not,” he said. He said the Jamaat-e-Islami and the PML-N would stand with them.
If everything goes as planned, this would be the first time the sabre-rattling between both rival parties will be playing out in the public arena, which is likely to lead both sides to previously unchartered territory.
In the past, animosity between the two sides had largely remained limited to publically fulminating against each other. But now it seems that the shrewd Maulana from Dera Ismail Khan has bitten the bullet. If Maulana’s public utterances are to be believed, he has apparently burnt his bridges and is in an unforgiving mood. Over the past couple of weeks, he has directly disparaged the miltablishment for ushering Imran into power.
Zulfiqar Ali, a Peshawar-based journalist, says if Maulana Fazlur Rehman succeeds in gathering a crowd as big as the rallies he has been arranging so far, it would be enough to build pressure on the government. After the PML-N, JUI-F is the only political party that has street power near Islamabad. If the PML-N joins the Maulana, then a show down will be more meaningful and perhaps unavoidable.
Ali said that Maulana’s protest could be a real power show, given that he had a strong support base that does not require too many resources to mobilize. “It would be like an annual tableeghi gathering at Raiwind and his workers will throng to Islamabad and sit wherever they can. This is in contrast to other parties which have to spend huge amounts on arrangements,” he said.
He said that in case the PML-N joined the JUI-F, it would add strong firepower to the show. This is because the PML-N has strong support in the Punjab. Ali cautioned that the PML-N was bound to reap the windfall of this power show because it was the bigger political party.
Since the July 2018 elections, opposition parties have been in a state of disarray and the top leaderships of the PML-N and the PPP are in jail on corruption charges. Perhaps for this reason both parties have avoided direct confrontation with the government. In case the Maulana manages to reaches Islamabad and even if his show fails to topple the PTI government, it will make life easier for the PML-N and the PPP leaders for some time. It also has the potential to give these parties ideas and empower them to follow Mualana’s footprints. Such a situation is likely to be fatal for the PTI government, which has a razor thin majority. Given the economic downturn, price hikes and feeling of dissatisfaction among masses, such agitation could snowball to unimaginable proportions.
This is do-or-die situation for the Maulana. He is putting his political career at risk for this march, because if he fails, his credibility would take a serious hit. On the other hand, the PTI would achieve a stronger position and the PPP and PML-N will continue to trudge along as they are.
The writer is a journalist based in Peshawar
