The government offices in the federal capital witnessed thin attendance on Monday ahead of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's 'Azadi March,' which is heading towards Islamabad from Karachi, due to road blockades at different entry points of the city. According to official sources, the attendance in government offices, especially in Pak Secretariat, remained 80 percent as the people could not reach offices due to closure of roads and police-checking at different exit and entry points of the twin cities.
They said that the attendance of people working in different government departments as well as private institutions located inside the Red Zone may further decrease once the marchers led by Emir JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rehman reach the capital. The people who had gone hometowns on weekend could not reach offices as a large number of police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies have been deployed at protest venue, i.e, Peshawar Morr on Kashmir Highway, creating nuisance for the motorists coming from Lahore, Peshawar and other cities.
Ahead of Azadi March which is set to reach capital on October 31, the traders gave a countrywide two-day (Tuesday and Wednesday) shutter-down strike call against the Ministry of Finance and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for their alleged failure to address their problems. Ajmal Baloch, a traders' leader, announced that traders would not be part of protests launched by the JUI-F emir on October 31.
"Maulana Fazlur Rehman's Azadi March has its own political agenda against Prime Minister Imran Khan but our demand is related to taxes imposed on us through Money Bill 2019," he added. He negated the impression that traders are supporting the JUI-F in any way as they have their own issues for which they have been struggling for the last about one year.
"We do not have any affiliation with any political party and we'd given our protest call on July 13 much before the JUI-F, so we have nothing to do with the religio-political party," he said. He appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to direct the Ministry of Finance and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to consider the charter of demands given by small traders or else the strike may be prolonged.
The business community has given a strike call against imposition of taxes, and warned to expand the protest across the country if the condition of presenting a copy of computerized national identity card (CNIC) for buying and selling goods over Rs 50,000 is not withdrawn.
Last week, two leaders of the JUI-F were arrested from Islamabad and a case was lodged against them by police. According to reports, Maulana Shafiqur Rehman and Maulana Muhammad Arshad were arrested from Shams Colony along with banners for the JUI-F sit-in in their possession. The police said the suspects challenged the administration by putting up banners despite the fact that Section 144 had been imposed in the area.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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