PML-Q advice averted violence during JUI-F march, claims Shujaat

By News Desk

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has revealed that it was with his party’s assistance that violence was averted during the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) march on the capital last year.

Among a series of revelations on Friday, Shujaat said he discussed the media’s issues with Prime Minister Imran Khan and suggested they be managed through talks, and expressed hopes Jang Geo Media Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s arrest and the Pemra ban on Channel 24 would be resolved soon. “One should forget everything else and try to solve the country’s problems,” he said.

Shujaat added that information minister Shibli Faraz could play a leading role when it comes to addressing the problems faced by the Pakistani media.

The PML-Q chief spoke about last year’s JUI-F march, revealing that when Maulana Fazlur Rehman came to Islamabad with his caravan of supporters, “some people” were in favour of cracking down on them hard.

“No one was willing to go to Imran Khan and talk to him [about the march],” he said, adding that “people were asking each other to speak to the premier but not willing to do it themselves”. He said that former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was not even a member of the government’s negotiating committee, yet he was asked to speak to the Prime Minister. Elahi met Khan and gave him advice, said Shujaat. He added that if a “clash takes place and someone dies, no one will be willing to take responsibility [for it]”.

Shujaat said Elahi told Khan that “a Prime Minister has to answer for everything” after which the decision to crack down on the JUI-F rally was delayed.

The PML-Q chief said accusations were made against his party regarding the JUI-F march, but it was due to the government’s implementation of Elahi’s ideas that the issue was resolved peacefully.

Touching upon the heightened tensions at the time, Shujaat said: “The common man cannot even comprehend what the situation at the time was. On the one hand you had the police and on the other were madrasa students waiting for Maulana Fazl’s orders.”

He credited the JUI-F leader by saying that he demonstrated foresight, adding that for the first time in history police and religious protesters were face to face, but no clash took place.

Further praising Fazl, Shujaat said “not even a glass broke” in the JUI-F rally. “I would advise Prime Minister Imran Khan to solve the country’s problems with talks,” he said. “Everything must be forgotten and efforts must be made [by the Prime Minister] to solve the country’s problems.”

The PML-Q leader said that he had opposed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, when he wanted to have former ambassador of Pakistan to the UN Maleeha Lodhi arrested. “I opposed it and said that it would not send a good message to journalists and the international community.”