Pervaiz Elahi given full authority to hold negotiations with Fazl

ISLAMABAD: The government's negotiating committee has decided to give full authority to Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to hold negotiations with Maulana Fazlur Rehman. 

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has led thousands of protesters to the H-9 venue in Islamabad where they are staging a sit-in protest against the government. 

READ MORE: Follow live updates of the Azadi March

Elahi was quoted as saying that the negotiations will be successful but would take time.

"We will achieve success, but it will take some time," he reportedly said.

Sources reported that the prime minister had told Elahi to give something to the protesters and also extract something from them during the negotiations.

During the last 24 hours, Elahi met Fazl three times. The PML-Q leader is expected to meet the JUI-F chief once again tonight to try to achieve a breakthrough in the deadlock between the two sides.

Fazl lashed out at Prime Minister Imran and the government again during his latest Azadi March speech.

"There is no justice in the country. NAB is helpless when it comes to holding the government responsible in Pakistan," he said.

Fazl said that he and the Azadi Marchers had arrived in Islamabad to save the country and that is what they will do.

"If these unqualified people present the next budget, then God forbid, the country will collapse," he said.

Fazl lashed out at the government for not living up to its promise of providing people with jobs. He said that the government had made false promises for votes.

"Why did you promise people more jobs when you couldn't deliver them?You misled the the youth," he said.

The JUI-F chief said that hundreds of thousands of people had been rendered jobless owing to the actions of the government.

"Today, there was talk of finishing more then four hundred institutions," he said. "Thousands of livelihoods are associated with these institution," he added.

Fazl lashed out at the government for opening the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9, which was the birthday of famed poet Allama Iqbal.

He paid tribute to his workers for remaining steadfast and urged them to continue to do the same.