PPP not to join Fazlur Rehman's Islamabad march but will provide 'moral support', says Bilawal

Published September 11, 2019
PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari says his party has had a "clear and consistent policy when it came to dharna politics in Islamabad". — DawnNewsTV
PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari says his party has had a "clear and consistent policy when it came to dharna politics in Islamabad". — DawnNewsTV

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday said that his party will not join the anti-government long march that Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced to set out on, but promised to provide "moral and political support".

Bilawal, while speaking to reporters in Jamshoro, said that PPP has had a "clear and consistent policy when it came to dharna politics in Islamabad".

"Whether it is a sit-in by Tahirul Qadri, Imran Khan or by Tehreek-i-Labbaik; we were in opposition when [those sit-ins] took place but we never joined them," he said.

"We support Maulana Fazlur Rehman's politics and the issues he is raising. We provide moral support, political support for his initiative [but] strategically, we don't see eye to eye."

Bilawal announced that he will go around the country as part of his mass contact campaign and raise the same issues as Rehman.

"While Rehman will be in Islamabad, I will be going across the country and our narrative will be the same, which is that this puppet, incapable prime minister, who has been imposed upon us through rigging, who has ruined our economy, who has weakened our national security position on every issue including Kashmir [...] he will have to go home," said the PPP chief.

The JUI-F chief, last month, had announced that his party had planned a "decisive" long march aimed at ousting the present “fake government” in October. He had warned the government against making any effort to disrupt their planned march and expressed the hope that people from all walks of life and from all over the country would reach Islamabad to participate in what he called an "Azadi March” to free the country of the present “incompetent and illegitimate government”.

He had said that his party was in contact with leaders of opposition parties in order to get them on board.

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