Religious Affairs Minister Maulana Abdul Shakoor has threatened a boycott of polio vaccination in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
In a video, the minister said the people of ex-fata will boycott government initiatives if peace was not established in the region. “We want to make it clear that if the government and security institutions fail to provide us with peace, the people of [formerly] Fata won’t accept the measures being taken by the government, on top of which is polio vaccination,” he said as per Dawn News.
Sitting Federal Minister Mufti Shakoor of JUIF announces boycott of polio vaccination. @CMShehbaz can he remain in your cabinet? pic.twitter.com/3bFB9HWSpi
— Gul Bukhari (@GulBukhari) August 12, 2022
He continued that the boycott campaign would be followed by civil disobedience, ‘similar to the one started by [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairperson] Imran Khan’.
Shakoor said that the JUI-F did not like to favor such moves and tactics, however the present circumstances had ‘left them with no choice’. He urged security institutions and the government to restore peace in the areas before things got out of hand.
JUI-F provincial information secretary Abdul Jalil Jan confirmed that Shakoor had been addressing a delegation of party leaders and workers from FATA in Peshawar. During the meeting, Shakoor also asked workers to stage protests against the recent killing of a JUI-F leader Qari Samiuddin in North Waziristan and last year’s killing of Maulana Abdul Salam, another leader, in Bajaur.
