JUI-F to hold countrywide rallies against poll rigging

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-islam-fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman has announced plans to launch a countrywide protest movement against the results of general elections.

The first gathering to this effect would be held in Pishin, Balochistan, on April 25.

In a video message, Rahman also announced a boycot of upcoming by-elections across Pakistan and declared that the JUI-F would not field candidates for by-polls on any seat.

The JUI-F chief said that they have already rejected the results of Feb.8 general elections. The story of the public mandate being snatched in 2018 was repeated in 2024, he added.

The JUI-F, he said, in all its general council meetings at the provincial and central level had rejected the results. “We believe this parliament is representative of the establishment, not the people of the country,” he added.

The party has decided to go to the people and take them into confidence, Rahman said, adding, the party would unite the people.

“The people will have to forge unity in their ranks so that they can protect the sanctity of their votes,” he said.

“Our stance is clear and we have decided to move ahead. We have decided to kick off our movement from April 25 from Balochistan,” he declared.

The protest gatherings to be held during the movement would be called “awami assembly.”

On April 25, a mammoth gathering would be arranged in Pishin. On May 9, another “people assembly” will be organised in Karachi, which will be atended by people from all over Sindh, he said.

Similarly, on May 9, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will hold a “people assembly” in Peshawar.

The date for a gathering in Lahore would be finalised during the “awami assembly” in Peshawar.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was helpless and had no right to compile results against the mandate of masses.

He alleged that certain “institutions” compiled the results and the ECP could not resist them.