Maulana’s doublespeak: Denying Haqqani presence, Fazl offers to negotiate with network

JUI-F chief says the government should take parliament into confidence over Clinton’s visit.

ISLAMABAD:

While it would be “inappropriate to influence any foreign outfit,” the eponymous chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman said he could play a role in negotiations with the Haqqanis.

“Sirajuddin Haqqani has formally joined the Mullah Omer-led Taliban movement,” the JUI-F chief said in an apparent rejection of the Haqqani network’s presence in Pakistan, at a press conference following a meeting of the party’s central executive committee on Saturday.

He accused Washington of destabilising Pakistan by forcing Islamabad to move against a network which did not exist on its soil.  Fazl rejected US insistence on a crackdown against the Haqqani network and said the government should take parliament into confidence vis-à-vis US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit.

He criticised the American strategy, saying that Washington was pressing Islamabad for military action against the Taliban on one hand and pursuing talks with them on the other.

Giving details of the party meeting, the JUI-F chief said they discussed the creation of new provinces in the country.

“The government lacks the two-thirds majority required for creation of new provinces. It should, therefore, not exploit public sentiment and play politics over the issue,” he said. He said the party meeting also “expressed sorrow over the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and demanded the United Nations conduct a criminal investigation into the matter.”

Qaddafi was the only Arab leader to be considered a hurdle in the way of nefarious American designs to occupy Arab oil resources, he said.

While saying that parliament should complete its term, Fazl chided the government over its failure to steer the country out of crises.

“If people feel that the government has failed to deliver, they should come forward for a change,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2011.