Senior JUI-F leader spells doom for PDM

In what appeared to be serious differences within the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) ranks, senior party leader Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani spelled doom for the 11-party anti-government alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, led by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Talking to the media in Quetta, the disgruntled JUI-F central leader criticised his own party chief, saying that Fazl himself was a “selected” one, and added that the PDM was an “unnatural alliance” that would soon break up because it had no ideology.

“My basic and principled difference with him [Fazl] is [that he is] lying,” Sherani, also a former chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), said, adding that the JUI-F chief had also persuaded all the scholars to use lies. “We have been opposing this war in disguise of riots since the beginning,” he said.

Sherani said that the JUI-F always opposed any hereditary leadership in the party. “We are against the turning of the party into a hereditary party. That has always been opposed in the party institutions and now it is being opposed openly,” he added.

Speaking about the PDM’s anti-government campaign, Sherani called it an “unnatural alliance, which will soon break up because … everyone [in the alliance] is struggling to come to power”. Each party in the opposition alliance, he added, had its own interests.

The PDM had launched a campaign to dislodge the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. Earlier this month, the alliance gave the government until January 31 to resign, otherwise a long march would he held on Islamabad. The PDM had also threatened with en masse resignations of its lawmakers.

He said that the PDM and the establishment were conspiring to create an atmosphere of division in the country. “Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government are not threatened by the PDM. The government can also complete its term and win the next election,” he said.

“If the PDM wants to resign then what is the point to delay it,” the JUI-F leader said. he advised the PDM leaders to accept the government offer. “They should take advantage of the government's offer and visit Makkah and Medina on the Umrah ticket,” he added.

According the Sherani, the slogans of the PDM parties were aimed only at befooling the people. “The PDM leaders talk about the judiciary, the Election Commission [of Pakistan (ECP)] and the freedom of the media. Do these parties have justice, freedom and democracy within themselves?”

And taking a jibe at the PDM president, Sherani said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was himself “selected,” therefore, he had no right to say that Prime Minister Imran Khan was selected to become the prime minister instead of being elected. Taking a jibe at PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman,

When asked about the price hike, Maulana Sherani acknowledged that inflation in the country was a reality, however, he stressed that the prices of daily use commodities, including flour and sugar, were coming down.

He said that the war in the region was being fought by the United States for its own interests and questioned why the nationalists and Islamists were killing children and families of each other. “The world is moving towards Islamic unity. Scholars and nationalists should not try to create any discord.”