Punjab government has allowed the Sunni Ittehad Council's long march from Islamabad to Lahore to enter the city after an assurance from the organisers that they would remain peaceful and terminate their march at Data Darbar at mid-night on Sunday.
SIC leaders told Business Recorder that Punjab government has withdrawn section 144 to allow the long march to enter the city and terminate at the Data Darbar where leaders of the SIC will address the gathering.
The long march, which started on Saturday from Bari Imam shrine, Islamabad had reached Gujranwala after passing through the cities of Gujjar Khan, Jhelum, Gujrat, Wazirabad, was in the vicinity of the provincial metropolis when this report was filed.
SIC leaders Sahibzada Fazal Karim MNA, Sarwat Ejazi Qadri, Afzal Qadri, Mahfooz Mashhadi, Safdar Shah Gilani, Mufti Fazalur Rehman Okarawi, Syed Iqbal Shah, Ajmal Shah Gilani and other lead the march.
Addressing the rally at Gujranwala, SIC chief Fazal Karim MNA said the SIC would not allow the repeal of the blasphemy laws. He said terrorism had distorted Pakistan's image across the globe, adding that those persuading people for suicide bombings were not loyal to Pakistan.
Shibzada Fazal Karim said that Pakistan has come under the clutches of the terrorists and SIC's 200-miles long march from Islamabad to Lahore was to aimed at saving Pakistan from Taliban attacks on peaceful people, shrines of the Sufi saints and culture of intolerance.
Karim said the government had not accepted the SIC's demand for legislation to curb terrorism and called for an All Parties Conference on the issue.
SIC leaders said that the Punjab government has failed to arrest the terrorists who were behind the suicide attacks on the shrines of the Sufi saints in which hundreds of innocent Muslims were killed.
It may be added that the Punjab government had banned the long march stating it had received intelligence reports that the terrorists might attack the participants. Police had arrested over a hundred local leaders and activists of Sunni Ittehad Council in Rawalpindi and stopped the rally near 'Soha Rawalpindi, where the activists had held a sit-in.
SIC Information Secretary Nawaz Kharal said that the government has released the arrested workers of the SIC and removed hurdles in the way of the march.