‘Incompetents’ will take over Senate if we boycott polls, says Fazl

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, while softening his stance on contesting upcoming Senate election, said on Saturday that opposition parties are participating in the electoral process to block the way of ‘incompetent candidates’ from filling the upper house of parliament.

Fazl who also heads Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — an alliance of almost all major opposition parties formed to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan — had earlier announced that opposition lawmakers would step down from all legislative assemblies of the country in a bid to break the Senate electoral college to stop it from taking place.

The 11-party alliance is mainly dominated by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F).

Speaking to the media in Peshawar today, the Maulana clarified that opposition’s movement is against the PTI-led government and not against the establishment despite his scathing criticism of the country’s security establishment in the recently held rallies of PDM across the country.

However, he maintained that the PDM alliance wanted the establishment to stop meddling into the political affairs of the country.

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Fazl said if opposition parties did not take part in the Senate elections “then it [Senate] would be filled by the incompetent people”.

The PDM chief said free and fair elections should be held to oust the incumbent government and end prevailing crises in the country.

“The rulers are idiots and they will remain so,” he remarked.

Fazl said the next government will abolish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and warned its officials to stay within the limits and refrain from developing personal animosity with opposition leaders.

The country has suffered a huge loss due to the government’s mishandling of Broadsheet scandal and Transparency International’s recent report has exposed the corruption of the incumbent rulers, he added.

Earlier this month, the PDM announced a series of protest rallies in various cities of the country as part of the next phase of its anti-government campaign, beginning with a demonstration outside the office of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Jan 19.