Head off clash with judiciary, govt told

JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman says country to lose greatly if its two principal institutions continue to fight.

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said that the country would stand to lose greatly if its two principal institutions — the executive and the judiciary — continued to fight for domination.

In a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Fazlur Rahman, whose party JUI-F is also part of the four-group ruling coalition at the Centre, urged the government to take steps for averting the crisis that he fears might eventually be disastrous for the country.

“The conflict between the two institutions will be disastrous for democracy and tantamount to dividing the coalition,” the JUI-F chief said.

A particular lobby wants to drive a wedge between the coalition partners and engage them in a possible showdown between the Supreme Court and the PPP-led government, he said.

Still, Fazl believes “the government coalition is quite robust” and is capable of facing any eventuality.

The JUI-F chief condemned the efforts being made on the part of some elements to weaken democracy by creating friction amongst institutions of the state.

The country’s sovereignty is already at stake due to increasing drone attacks which are fuelling anger among the residents of Fata, he said. A weak democracy, after all, cannot meet the challenge posed by terrorists.

“The political lobbyists, who are hatching conspiracies to derail the democratic set-up, are the real threat to the sovereignty of the country,” Fazlur-Rahman said.

In light of government efforts to tackle the problem of any possible insurgency in Balochistan, the JUI-F chief said that the incumbent government strongly believed in democracy. “Any effort by some traitors to fuel target killing in Balochistan would be equivalent to dividing the country,” he explained.

During the meeting the interior minister also took up the issue of destruction caused by floods in Dera Ismail Khan as well as the distribution of Watan cards among the flood victims with the JUI-F chief.

He assured the JUI-F chief that the government was leaving no stone unturned to bring Dr Aafia Siddiqui back home. Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, soon after the announcement of Dr Aafia’s sentence, directed the Interior Ministry to use all legal and political channels for her release as well as her repatriation to Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2010.