Breaking the silence: Fazl asks TTP to stop attacks on candidates

Says ANP, MQM and PPP failed to control terrorism, have no political standing.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN:

Maulana Fazlur Rehman appealed to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday to not carry out attacks on candidates from political parties including the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Speaking to gatherings at Kulachi and Pota of DI Khan, the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam said the Taliban do not need to carry out attacks on these political parties since they (the parties) had already lost the moral justification to form the next government.

He said that these three parties, formerly part of the previous coalition government, had no political standing and had failed to frame a strategy against terrorism.

The JUI-F chief said that the previous government had sent the Pakistan Army to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) but the operation failed miserably. “The (military) operation failed to end militancy during the past five years... terrorism has only spread in the country”.

Though acknowledging the attacks on the election candidates, Rehman said nothing should delay the upcoming elections.

Questioning the arrangements made for the elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, Rehman lashed out at President Asif Ali Zardari saying that he had given the K-P governor the task of carrying out pre-poll rigging in the region. Blasting the election arrangements, he said that polling stations in Fata were 20-25 kilometres apart from each other making it virtually impossible for the people to reach the polling stations.

He also alleged that the teachers who are to perform duties at the polling stations were chosen with the approval of the K-P governor and were not impartial. Rehman added that the JUI-F in a letter to the ECP had demanded the dismissal of the K-P governor.

Rehman stated that this was all part of a strategy to hurt the vote bank of the JUI-F, he demanded the ECP to take into consideration the party’s reservations otherwise they would have to resort to registering their complaints to the International Observers of the election commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2013.