Islamabad: Pakistan’s hard-line cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday gave Prime Minister Imran Khan a two-day ultimatum to resign, saying the “Gorbachev of Pakistan” must step down without testing the patience of peaceful protestors.
Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, calling for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation over economic hardships.
“I’m giving a two-day deadline for the resignation,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of the Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, told the rally on November 1.
“Don’t test our patience,” Rehman said, without saying what would hapen after the expiration of the two-day deadline.
In a veiled reference to Pakistan’s army, he called on the country’s “establishment” not to support Khan’s government.
Rehman was joined by leaders of Pakistan’s main political parties in anti-government speeches, as Khan remained defiant, accusing his opponents of using religion against his government.
“They have disjointed thoughts and don’t have any agenda,” he told a rally in northern Pakistan.
The opposition claim the prime minister is incompetent and his government was illegitimately installed by Pakistan’s military after a rigged general election in 2018. The army denies meddling in politics.
Rehman brought his supporters on a five-day journey, dubbed the Azadi (Freedom) March — to Islamabad from the southern city of Karachi. Demonstrators traveled on buses, bikes, and private cars to gather in the capital by late evening on October 31 for the anti-government protest.
Mobile phone and Internet signals have been reportedly blocked within a 3-kilometer radius around the area where the rally is taking place.
No Pakistani prime minister has completed a full term in office in 70 years.
