Pakistan: JUI-F abandons plans to block roads after lawmakers, party workers released

Islamabad [Pakistan], March 11 (ANI): Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief has abandoned plans to block highways across Pakistan after lawmakers and workers, who were arrested Thursday during a raid at Parliament Lodges, were released by the police.
Ahead of a no-confidence motion against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by Opposition parties, Islamabad Police on Thursday night stormed Parliament Lodges and made 19 arrests including key opposition members of the National Assembly, the highest legislative body of the country.
JUI-F president Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday said there was "no need" to block the roads now since all parliamentarians and workers have been released, the Dawn newspaper reported. In a message shared on Twitter, the JUI-F chief condemned the police's actions on Thursday.
He said they "discarded all laws and ethics at Parliament Lodges, baselessly tortured workers and dragged and arrested elected representatives of the public, detained their guests and presented a wrong picture and false narrative to the public".
Pakistan media reported that heavy contingents of police commandos and other law enforcement agencies gathered around the Parliament Lodges under the command of DIG (Operations) on Thursday night.
"We tried to convince them that they could not enter the lodges, but the police personnel remained adamant and entered by force," PMLN leader Khawaja Saad Rafique who was injured in the scuffle was quoted as saying.
The police action came after members of Ansarul Islam, a uniformed volunteer force set up to protect the leadership of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), entered the Parliament Lodges in large numbers, reported Dawn.
JUI leader and Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Salahuddin Ayubi refused to accept the police's demand saying that the Ansarul activists were their guests and legally staying with them. Shortly afterward, clashes between Ayubi's staff and police personnel erupted.
The police commandos broke into the suite of Salahuddin Ayubi and arrested activists of Ansarul Islam, dragged them out of the room, shifted them to the police prisoner vans and took them to an unknown place.
The development comes amid growing discontent against the Imran Khan government, with Pakistan's main opposition parties filing a no-confidence motion against the Pakistan PM on Tuesday in the National Assembly. (ANI)