As protests begin, JUI-F leader held
GOVERNMENT STRIKES DEAL WITH PARTY ALLOWING IT TO HOLD RALLY
As antigovernment protests kick-started in Pakistan, Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F) leader Mufti Kifayatullah was arrested in the capital Islamabad yesterday for allegedly issuing inflammatory statements against the national institution.
JUI-F deputy information secretary Aslam Ghouri has confirmed the news saying that Kifayatullah was taken into custody from Islamabad’s Sector E-11, reported Geo News.
The arrest comes as the government struck a deal with JUI-F allowing the latter to conduct a rally to proceed.
According to the agreement, the government will not stand in the protesters’ way and “neither will the participants face any difficulty in getting food delivered”.
Kifayatullah is the third leader detained in the capital ahead of the ‘Azadi March’ called by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Last Monday, police arrested Maulana Shafiq-ur-Rehman and Maulana
Mohammad Irshad in the Shams Colony, and seized banners for the JUI-F sit-in from their possession.
All major opposition parties including the PML-N of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan People’s Party of former president Asif Ali Zardari have announced their support.
Demand
Fazl has demanded Khan’s resignation, alleging that the election held in July 2018 was rigged to help his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Meanwhile, shipping firms in Pakistan have accused authorities in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of forcibly seizing their containers for using them to block the entry of demonstrators to the capital Islamabad ahead of the ‘Azadi March’.
“Over the last three days, police have forcibly taken possession of more than 3,000 containers in different parts of the country,” Hakimullah Khan, president of the Containers Association in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Anadolu Agency.