The main event will be in Rawalpindi where JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will address the meeting.
A photo of TTAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai. SCREEN CAPTURE
LAHORE:
Cracks within the opposition camp have deepened ahead of protests planned for February 8, with Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Aeen Pakistan (TTAP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) trading blame for a lack of coordination on Friday, as both sides insisted a broader alliance could still be possible.
The JUI-F spokesperson said TTAP should have trusted JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman before announcing its February 8 activity if it really wanted to keep the party by its side.
He blamed the split in the opposition seats on the PTI, although he maintained that an alliance between the two parties in the near future remained a possibility.
TTAP, on the other hand, claimed that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, despite being on the opposition benches, was not serious about joining a multi-party opposition alliance, citing the negative-sum political equation between him and the PTI, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Recently, both sides announced their protest plans for February 8, and JUI-F’s nationwide protest was deliberately designed to avoid clashing with TTAP activities.
JUI-F spokesperson Maulana Aslam Ghouri said JUI-F, under the banner Awan Nai Medan, will hold protests across the country, one in each provincial capital of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, while in Sindh, protests will also be held at the district headquarters.
The main event will take place in Rawalpindi where JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will address the attendees.
When asked if the party would hold marches or rallies, he said they would only hold marches as holding rallies would disrupt the TTAP logjam across the country.
Responding to the question why the JUI-F did not simply join hands with the TTAP for greater impact, he said the party’s doors were always open but the TTAP had never shown genuine intention. From their first meeting until the recent announcement of the plan on February 8, he said, TTAP did not trust the JUI-F chief.
He said that while both sides are largely in agreement on the issue of massive fraud in the 2024 elections, JUI-F believes that the PTI must also acknowledge that the 2018 elections were rigged in the same way, and that fraud also occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024.
He said these were the two main points of disagreement between JUI-F and TTAP.
When asked about any recent interaction between TTAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he said the JUI-F chief was currently in South Africa and would return on February 6.
Former Sindh governor and TTAP member Muhammad Zubair said Maulana was not interested in coming together to form a joint opposition movement.
He claimed that Maulana was fully aware that the success of any opposition movement would bring back Imran Khan and the PTI, a party which he said had dented his political ambitions in KP.
Zubair rejected JUI-F’s claims that the 2018 and 2024 elections, as well as those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were rigged, calling them far from reality. He said the massive and blatant fraud in 2024 was unparalleled and claimed that the KP’s results were kept immaculate only to give the elections some global credibility.
