Fazl offers to help reconcile with Afghanistan

JUI-F chief suggests forming joint commission through mutual consultation

ISLAMABAD:

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, has offered to play a role in the reconciliation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In his speech at the party's Provincial Majlis Shura meeting at Mufti Mahmood Centre here on Sunday, Fazl said that Pakistan and Afghanistan should form a joint commission through mutual consultation for which the JUI-F could play a key role.

The move comes days after tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan eased which led to the reopening of the Torkham border for transit trade and public movement.

The border had been closed on Sept 6 after Pakistan and Afghan security forces engaged in gun battle over the latter’s move of establishing a check post in the border area.

Sources told The Express Tribune that Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi had a key role to play in the reopening of the crossing point between the two countries.

They said that reopening of the Torkham border was conditioned by Islamabad with the withdrawal of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Chitral.

On Sept 6, the same day that the border was closed after a gun battle between the Pakistan and Afghan forces, at least four soldiers were martyred and 12 TTP terrorists were killed in clashes in Chitral.

Fazl said, “The country was led into economic depression under a well-thought-out plan.”

He accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan of making agreements to hand over the country's budget price fluctuations to the International Monetary Fund.

The JUI-F chief termed the Mufti Mahmood conference a milestone not only in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but also in national politics.

Fazl said that western countries fully supported the PTI to distort the morals and Islamic values of the young generation.

“Our State Bank is not accountable to the government but to the IMF and this agreement was made by Imran Khan.”

Fazl said, “Today, the nation is suffering the punishment of what Imran Khan has done. Ten years in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and four years at the Centre. The attempt to impose those who stole the power of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province for 10 years and four years at the Center will be defeated by the power of people's vote.”