‘Selected’, not elected
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan faces the first major challenge to his leadership as a grey-bearded, orange-turbaned rival he calls “Maulana Diesel” marches to Islamabad with thousands of Islamists hoping to bring down the government.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman -- one of the country’s most seasoned political operators -- has dominated the airwaves in recent days with his calls to unseat his old adversary Khan.
The prime minister, he says, did not win last year’s election, but was “selected” by the powerful security establishment -- a suggestion denied by Khan, but spread widely by Pakistan’s opposition since even before the July 2018 election.
“This movement will continue until the end of this government,” Rehman told reporters ahead of the march.
“There is no other way... to bring Pakistan back on the democratic path.”
Rehman, who heads the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) -- one of the country’s largest Islamist parties -- has been leading supporters from across Pakistan for days on a “Azadi (Freedom) March” towards Islamabad, with tens of thousands expected to converge on the capital. He says they will arrive by October 31, but so far has refused to clarify what happens next.
With the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of madrassa students, JUI-F protests have a history of stirring unrest, and authorities are sealing off the capital’s diplomatic enclave with shipping containers.
Comments