JUI-F march got Sharif released from prison: former party leader

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, one of the four JUI-F leaders who were expelled from the party in December 2020, has said that ex-premier Nawaz Sharif was released from the prison because of the 2019 Azadi March.

“Had we not done Azadi March, Nawaz Sharif would still be languishing in jail,” the former JUI-F leader told reporters in Quetta Monday.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F had staged a sit-in in October 2019 against Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. The sit-in could not, however, achieve its goals and PM Khan is still the country’s prime minister.

Sharif’s release from jail wasn’t one of the party’s demands but it did pressure the government to give the opposition parties some space to breathe.

Explainer: Azadi March, Imran Khan’s resignation, Fazl’s goals

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, the former JUI-F leader, was expelled from the party because he deviated from the party’s policy, a JUI-F spokesperson had said in December.

The differences between the JUI-F leaders emerged after Sherani and Ahmed criticized Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s decision to become a part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

Ahmed still believes the PDM will fail to achieve its targets. He told reporters in Quetta that he had predicted in the past that the opposition parties will not resign from the assemblies and he has been proven right.

Related: Maulana Sherani, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed expelled from JUI-F

He also took a dig at Maulana Fazl during his press conference. He said that the cleric has been holding protests across the country for free and fair elections but he isn’t in favour of holding fair elections within his own party.