The negotiations between government and a group of religious clerics, staging a sit-in on Jinnah Avenue against omission of Khatam-e-Nabuwat [finality of prophet-hood] declaration in Election Bill 2017, could not bear any fruit despite passage of four days.
Nawaz Qadri, a spokesman for the Labbaik Ya Rasool, said that the government has once again invited the leaders of the protest sit-in, but we are not going to call it off unless our six demands put forth to the government are accepted. "The minister for railways has invited our leaders tonight at 10pm and we are not going to budge from our stance. Our people are still here and we will not call off the sit-in if our demands are not met," he added. He said that the sit-in has started all over the country as protesters have staged a sit-in in Lahore near Railway Station and similar sit-ins in other parts of the country have also stated at 3pm on Sunday. "The Fiazabad has been blocked and if this remained the situation, we will extend our protests throughout the country as their will be no compromise on Khatam-e-Nabuwat," he added.
A group of clerics who are heading the sit-in have agreed to meet the railways minister, but they were not sure whether the talks with railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique will be successful or not. The spokesman for the sit-in protesters said that all the participants of the sit-in are upbeat and no one is ready to leave unless their six demands are accepted by the government.
The protest remained continued for about four days on busy Jinnah Avenue. Till filing of this report, all the protesters were sitting on Jinnah Avenue. They warned that no one can force them out and any use of force by the police to use force against them will have serious repercussions. "We are not here for any political point scoring as it is a matter of Khatam-e- Nabuwat. All those involved in this controversy including Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah who is crossing his limits, should be given exemplary punishment," said Maulana Saifuddin, one of the protesters.
Earlier in the day, Dr Asif Ashraf Jilani, one of the influential clerics, who is leading the protest sit-in, said that people would not accept anything less than acceptance of their demands. A heavy contingent of the police kept guarding the protesters, fearing they might barge into the heavily guarded red-zone. A senior police officer at the sit-in site said that the police remained red-alert as they had clear instructions from higher ups not to allow the protesters into the red zone.
The police had sealed the red zone with shipping containers by putting barbed wires on sensitive installations in the area. Heavy contingent of police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary were deployed outside red zone as well as in various other parts of the city.
Comments
Comments are closed.