Imran faces first tough test as cleric marches into capital
FAZLUR RAHMAN SAYS PM MUST GO TO BRING DEMOCRACY BACK IN COUNTRY
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan faces the first major challenge to his leadership as a greybearded, orange-turbaned rival he calls “Maulana Diesel” marches to Islamabad with thousands of Islamists hoping to bring down the government.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman — one of the country’s most seasoned political operators — has dominated the airwaves in recent days with his calls to unseat his old adversary Khan. The prime minister, he says, did not win last year’s election, but was “selected” by the powerful security establishment — a suggestion denied by Khan, but spread widely by Pakistan’s opposition since even before the July 2018 election.
“This movement will continue until the end of this government,” Fazlur Rahman told reporters ahead of the march.
“There is no other way... to bring Pakistan back on the democratic path.”
Fazlur Rahman, who heads the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF) — one of the country’s largest Islamist parties — has been leading supporters from across Pakistan for days on a “Azadi (Freedom) March” towards Islamabad, with tens of thousands expected to converge on the capital.
He says they will arrive by today, but so far has refused to clarify what happens next.
It is a scenario Khan himself is familiar with. As opposition leader in 2014 he organised months of mass protests in Islamabad that failed in a bid to bring down the government.
With the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of madrassa students, JUI-F protests have a history of stirring unrest, and authorities are sealing off the capital’s diplomatic enclave with shipping containers.
A violent crackdown risks sparking a wider backlash in the country, where mainstream politicians have long tried to keep the conservative right on side.
Bad blood
Fazlur Rahman’s bad blood with Khan runs deep. Khan ran on an anti-corruption agenda in 2018 and called out “Maulana Diesel”, as he dubbed him, for his alleged participation in graft involving fuel licenses.