KARACHI: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) kicked off Azadi March from Karachi on Sunday after a speech from Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Kashmir Black Day.
The caravan lead by the JUI-F chief proceeded to the Super Highway (M9) after smaller demonstrations from all over the city converged at Sohrab Goth where the political leaders spoke about Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.
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PPP’s Raza Rabbani and Saeed Ghani welcomed the participants of the rally. Addressing the crowd, Rabbani said he was here on instructions of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto, and that the PPP workers and supporters will welcome the marchers.
Former Sindh governer and senior PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair also spoke on the occasion.
A large number of buses and other vehicles were hired to transport the participants of Azadi March. A senior JUI-F leader said that the number of buses had already crossed 400.
The participants of Azadi March from across the country will gather near Tarnol before entering Islamabad on October 31.
The negotiations between the Rahbar Committee of the opposition parties and the government were successful on Saturday as the JUI-F agreed to hold protest demonstration at the end of Azadi March at Peshawar Morr in Islamabad.
“The Rahbar Committee of the opposition has agreed that the Azadi March will not enter the Red Zone and will hold its public meeting at the venue decided by the government,” Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, who heads the government’s negotiating team, said at a news conference after talks with the Rahbar Committee.
Moreover, Akram Durrani, convenor of Rahbar Committee, said the opposition parties would stage the Azadi March on roads instead of staging a sit-in at Red Zone in the federal capital.
“We would not stage a 126-day sit-in like that of the PTI. We would look into the situation and decide our future line of action. Our demands are the same including, securing the resignation of the prime minister, holding fair and free general elections and protection to the Islamic clauses in the Constitution,” he said.
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