SWABI: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl central deputy chief Maulana Fazal Ali said on Thursday that the party’s new phase of anti-government protest would get an overwhelming response because masses were in deep trouble due to the government policies.

Talking to this correspondent, he said that in the new phase protest demonstrations would be held in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and the struggle would continue till ouster of the present rulers and announcement of fresh election in the country.

He said that the situation was ripe for the protest because Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had already committed serious blunders and the masses wanted to get rid of this incompetent government.

Maulana Ali said that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had announced the new phase of agitation after consultation with the allied parties.

Maulana Ali vows struggle till fresh polls announced

He said that during the last one and half years the PTI leadership had pushed the poor masses into the spiral of record price hike.

“Right now we can predict that the claim of Rs10 billion subsidy to the Utility Stores Cooperation is an empty pledge because the stores have already been tested in Ramazan, but they never succeeded to reduce prices of commodities,” he said.

Maulana Ali claimed that the upcoming annual budget would open new floodgates of price hike. He predicted that the prices of electricity, gas and petroleum products would also be increased.

Answering a question, he said that earlier the leadership of PML-N and PPP had committed a mistake because they failed to join the ‘Azadi March’ on the JUI-F’s term.

KILLED: Three people were killed in separate incidents here on Thursday.

Registering an FIR in Chota Lahor city police station, Akhtar Ali said that his father Naimat Khan was on way to a mosque at Thano village when Manazir Khan opened fire on him, killing him on the spot. He said that his father had recently been released from jail and the cause of the incident was an old enmity. Police have registered the case.

In another incident, Salman Khan of Manki village was on way to Chota Lahor when his motorcycle collided with a tractor trolley near Beka village.

As a result, he was seriously injured and taken to Chota Lahor THQ hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. In a similar mishap, wife of one Amjid Khan was killed in a road accident when a truck hit an auto-rickshaw near Shewa Adda on Swabi-Mardan road on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2020