Hafiz Naeem Announces Long March, Tells Supporters to Prepare and Warns Government Over Public Relief

• Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has asked supporters to begin preparations for a long march.
• He said caravans would converge on Islamabad from different directions rather than participate in a short, three-day protest.
• Hafiz Naeem said Jamaat-e-Islami wanted to continue its struggle peacefully but warned that the government must provide relief to the public.
• He criticised Pakistan’s feudal system and the existing civil and military bureaucratic structure, saying they had failed to deliver.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has called on party workers and supporters to begin preparations for a long march, saying caravans from different parts of the country would eventually converge on Islamabad.

Addressing participants of a sit-in in Lahore, Hafiz Naeem said the planned protest would not be a conventional long march lasting only a few days. Instead, he indicated that participants would move towards the federal capital from different directions as part of a broader mobilisation.

“Start preparing for the long march. Caravans will join the long march from every direction,” he told supporters.

Explaining the planned strategy, the JI chief said the march would not be limited to three days. He compared the movement of protesters towards Islamabad to ants spreading from different directions, saying participants would enter the capital from multiple routes.

Hafiz Naeem further said that once protesters reached Islamabad, party officials would switch off their phones and stop receiving calls. After that stage, he said, the movement would move towards what he described as a “revolution”.

During his address, he repeatedly asked supporters whether they were prepared for the campaign and received an enthusiastic response from the gathering.

The Jamaat-e-Islami chief maintained that his party wanted to move forward through peaceful means, but said the next course of events would depend on the government’s response.

He said the government still had an opportunity to accept the peaceful struggle and provide relief to ordinary people. Otherwise, he warned, the authorities should be prepared to face all kinds of circumstances arising from the protest campaign.

Hafiz Naeem also strongly criticised the country’s existing political and administrative structure. He argued that the feudal and “wadera shahi” system had failed to deliver for the public.

He also criticised what he described as a bureaucratic mindset inherited from British colonial rule, referring to both the civil and military structures and claiming that the existing system had been unable to deliver effective results.

The remarks signal Jamaat-e-Islami’s intention to intensify its protest campaign, with Hafiz Naeem making clear that the proposed long march would involve mobilisation from multiple directions and could continue beyond a limited timeframe.