Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said his party was planning to protest against the federal government’s policies after Eidul Fitr, along with the PTI.

Speaking to journalists in Islamabad on Saturday evening, Fazl said that a meeting of the JUI-F general assembly had been called to devise a plan to launch a protest campaign against the government’s policies and take stock of the country’s situation.

“After Eid, a decision will be made to hold a protest in the general assembly,” he said, referring to the current government and parliament as “puppets”.

“Why can’t they talk about the country’s problems?” the senior politician rhetorically asked.

“Employees are being sacked from institutions including postal services and PWD [Public Works Department] — if the employees are incompetent, then how are you qualified?”

On a possible alliance with the PTI, Fazl admitted that the “real leadership of PTI” was still in jail and that there was no real unity outside. However, he added that bitterness between the two parties had reduced, hinting at an alliance with the party.

“A decision will be made in the policy-making meeting on the alliance with the PTI in the anti-government movement,” he said.

In April last year, the PTI already formed a multi-party opposition alliance named Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), comprising the Sunni Ittehad Council, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Balochistan Nat­ion­­al Party-Mengal, Jamaat-i-Islami, and Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen.

After talks between the government and the opposition collapsed in January, the PTI made another push to establish a joint front against the federal government and roped in Abbasi to become part of its anti-government movement.

On the ruling PML-N, Fazl said its supremo and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif could “play an important role in the current political situation of the country”.

“If Nawaz Sharif thinks that the government has worked in one province, where has the country gone,” he said, adding that President Asif Ali Zardari was the only person who had “the ability to buy the provincial assembly and the President’s House”.

“If Punjab is cold, it doesn’t matter. The two provinces have been left on their own.”