Nawaz, Fazl cement alliance with 'adjustment'

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday decided to move forward with mutual consent and “adjustment” in the upcoming general elections and beyond.

The two heavyweights of the country’s political arena had their first formal meeting after Nawaz returned to the country on Oct 21.

The two leaders discussed the current political situation, and the upcoming elections, agreed to move forward through consultation and cooperation, and fine-tuned their future alliance and possible seat adjustments in the polls.

The duo also condemned Israel’s relentless bombing of innocent Palestinians, among other issues.
Apart from Nawaz, the PML-N delegation included ex-premier Shehbaz Sharif, Leader of the House in Senate Ishaq Dar, PML-N Senior Vice President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz, among others.

Fazl was joined by JUI-F’s senator Maulana Ghafoor Haideri, Maulana Asad Mahmood and others.
“We have decided today that we would want to move together in the future as well,” Maulana Fazl announced before adding that both the parties would like to continue moving ahead with harmony, a reconciliatory approach and “adjustment” in election matters.

Expressing that the JUI-F would also stay in touch with other parties, the JUI-F chief said that all the parties should benefit from the atmosphere that was created during the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) movement.

He said that no party should be deprived of its rights wherever it has strength.

Regretting that conspiracies were still being hatched against the country, Fazl said that all parties should avoid spending their energies on fighting with each other and think about the country and its betterment.
“We agreed upon it and decided to move ahead together,” he reiterated.

To a question about what kind of alliance it would be with the PML-N, the Maulana quipped: “Whatever you can interpret will happen.”

He recalled how the PML-N and the JUI-F had strived together for a long time, remained allies and collectively made policies as well in the previous government, saying both the parties also ran the movement against the “illegitimate” PTI government.‘PTI not a party’. 

At one point, the Maulana refused to accept the PTI as a political party altogether, saying “The PTI is not sincere with Pakistan”.

He alleged its agenda was to break the country, sell Kashmir, recognise Israel and declare the Ahmadiyya community as Muslims again. “We don’t consider any party having such ideologies a Pakistani party,” he said.

To another question about the PPP being a part of the alliance, the Maulana said: “We will not resort to adopting any extremist behaviour against the Peoples Party. No one should create any bitterness in the electoral campaign whether they agree or disagree to work together.”

To a question about PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement that elections would be a useless exercise if the results were already decided, Fazl said Bilawal doesn’t know what “we have seen and heard in the past”, adding that the past should be handed over to the history but “our politics shouldn’t be handed over to kids”.

To the question about Bilawal’s statement that the old guards should take retirement from politics now, the Maulana once again came up with his one-liner witty reply: “First, Bilawal’s message is to his father” and then he questioned in the same breath what would have Bilawal said if his mother – ex-premier Benazir Bhutto – was alive today.

On the apprehensions being expressed by Bilawal that a level-playing field was not being provided, Fazl said that the difference between the thinking of an elderly and a kid was visible in the kind of statements being issued these days.

In his media talk, the Maulana said that Pakistan faced one controversial election in the recent past and questioned if the country could bear the brunt of yet another controversial election, vowing that utmost efforts would be made to avoid making the polls controversial.

The JUI-F chief said that his party did not want to see any delay in polls but lamented that the security situation in Lahore or Islamabad was way different than what was happening in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan areas.

He revealed that even his opponents told him that they would not be able to run an election campaign due to the security threats.

He reiterated that all the institutions should work within their defined boundaries, help provide the country better law and order situation, contribute to economic development and improve the overall governance system.

He shunned the rumours about any delay in elections, saying he wanted to believe that polls were going to take place even if someone said they were being delayed.

The Maulana while clarifying that the JUI-F did not refuse to meet with the ambassadors of any country as they met with political parties even during the election days, added that the US ambassador’s “meeting is conceived differently when he meets a political leader”.

Sometimes, he said, such a meeting was taken differently as it was envisaged that a superpower country was taking interest or interfering in a country’s internal affairs. This, he said, was always opposed.

Condemning Israel’s continuous attacks on innocent Palestinians, the Maulana regretted President Dr Arif Alvi’s statement regarding a two-state solution, saying: “We talk about only one Palestine and the notion of a two-state solution should be abandoned.”