Election canvassing: Dancers eligible, not pious clerics, says Fazl

JUI-F chief expresses distrust over ECP: fires salvo against ANP, Imran Khan.

MULTAN:

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday expressed distrust over the election commission and blamed the Awami National Party (ANP) for creating an environment that encouraged terrorism.

“How can we trust an election commission that has rejected the pious religious clerics of the country and declared dancers and stage actresses eligible for contesting elections,” Fazl said while talking to reporters in Multan.

“I had not anticipated that the election commission would go for such drama in the name of scrutiny, rejecting the most pious individuals of the country and declaring those who promote vulgarity, as holy for the elections.”

“All this happened because returning officers were not aware of the Shariah,” he said, adding that the ROs should’ve restricted themselves to their duties. The ECP, he said, had made a mockery of the state religion.

Talking about terrorism, he said the ANP was responsible for starting this game of fire in the country and they should face the consequences now.

While clarifying the strategy of counterterrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he said the army had been wrongly used to fuel war in the country, adding that his party had always opposed the use of bullet and force in politics.

“Today I fear the slogan of a new Pakistan from a cricketer, because I had heard the same from Bhutto and then I saw the separation of East Pakistan,” he said, dismissing PTI’s movement of a new Pakistan.

He said following Imran Khan was not right because he is sponsored by non-Muslim forces.

He also said the biggest crisis that Pakistan had faced since its inception was the absence of true leadership and that JUI-F could resolve this crisis by giving the nation an Islamic system.

He said that elections must be held on time and that any delay would not be tolerated.

“If elections are delayed, then it will be the last delay in the history of elections.”

Talking about the former president, Fazl said that during the Musharraf era, no one was above the law and today, the same principle should be applied on Musharraf. He also dismissed Tahirul Qadri’s protests, adding that he was nothing but a paid agent and his protests had no value.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2013.