JUI-F warns against its ouster from parliament

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has warned that his party cannot be kept out of parliament and that any such attempt will be thwarted and resisted with full force.

Addressing the Mufti Mehmood Conference here on Saturday, Fazl said that the JUI-F wanted to contest the upcoming polls and strengthen democracy in the country but that it would not allow its ouster from parliament (like in the previous elections).

Thousands, including leaders from other political parties, were in attendance.

“We don’t want to create anarchy and destabilise the country but we will not sacrifice our politics either,” he said, adding that the successful conduct of the Mufti Mehmood Conference had sent a message to the world that political successors of Mufti Mehmood were still active in politics.

“The 1973 Constitution is Islamic because of Mufti Mehmood. The world has changed in the past 40 years and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States is now the sole super power of the world and is playing the role once played by the Soviet Union,” he said.

“Our establishment and bureaucracy work under pressure from the USA. There is a Constitution and law in this country but we still take dictation from the international financial organisations,” he said, adding that the purpose for which Pakistan was created needed to be revived in the country.

Fazl said that his party had opposed the merger of the erstwhile Fata with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but the merger was done and the reservations of the JUI-F had come true with the passage of time.

Before the merger, Fazl said that the tribal belt had been promised Rs100 billion per annum but that promise had never been fulfilled which ruined the entire process of the merger.

“We oppose imposing taxes in ex-Fata and Pata. We also demand that the crackdown against the non-custom paid (NCP) vehicles be stopped forthwith and locals should be allowed to live their lives in peace,” he observed.

The founding leader of Hamas, Khalid Mashal, also addressed the conference via video link.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2023.