Pakistan: Jamaat-i-Islami party to hold long march to Islamabad

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 27 (ANI): Pakistan’s Islamist political party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has announced that it will hold its own “decisive” long march on Islamabad in March amid continuing price-hike and inflation in the country.
JI secretary general Amirul Azeem said the party had decided to hold anti-government long marches at tehsil, district and provincial level from February 6 which would end up in the capital city in March, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.
He said that the party had already made plans for the protest campaign during which 101 sit-ins would be held in various parts of the country.
This announcement comes a day after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of opposition parties, announced it will organize an “anti-inflation” long march to Islamabad on March 23, on the occasion of Pakistan Day.
PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, made the announcement of the march while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday.
Another opposition party PPP has also given a call for a long march from Sindh to Islamabad on February 27. Fazlur Rehman had expressed his annoyance over the PPP’s decision to hold its own long march.
Last week, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said he believed that separate long marches would create more difficulties for the Imran Khan government.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan last week warned the Opposition parties that he would be more dangerous if they forced him to step down as he ruled out granting any concession to them.
Answering a question about the PDM long march, Imran Khan said that the move would fail. (ANI)