Worsening law and order: As K-P burns, political tug of war goes on, says Fazl

JUI-F chief says provincial authorities in K-P are locked in a battle for power.

KARAK:

The eponymous chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said on Sunday that the federal government and the provincial authorities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were locked in a battle for power, while the province was burning due to lawlessness.

Speaking to party workers in Karak on Sunday, he accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led K-P government of receiving millions of dollars from the US on one hand and staging a drama against drone strikes on the other. He also termed PTI’s blockade against Nato supplies a failure.

“We thought Imran Khan would close the [Nato] supply lines for five years, but the protest only lasted five hours,” Fazl said.

The K-P government, on one hand, took $500 million from the US, while on the other, staged a lame protest against drone strikes. He said the party’s members lashed out when all other political parties decided to pass a resolution against drone strikes and stop Nato’s supply lines, but the PTI-led government withdrew from the resolution, despite a vote of confidence from opposition parties, he maintained.



However, now Imran Khan and his party are taking a solo flight but have failed badly. Criticising PTI’s protests, the JUI-F chief said, “Change doesn’t come through singing and dancing.” He would struggle for the development of Karak and would strive to give the royalty on gas and oil to its people.

Fazl said that he started politics not for his own benefits but to establish an Islamic welfare state in Pakistan. The JUI-F was blamed for trampling the constitution and imposing Shariah at gunpoint, but “we demand Shariah in Pakistan with accordance to the constitution”. JUI-F’s policies and strategy for the implementation of Shariah is clear and not based on any kind of violence, he added.

To restore peace in the region, JUI-F has found an alternate in the form of a peace jirga, which would be organised on November 28 in Peshawar, in which tribesmen would be taken on board, he announced. The federal government would be informed about the suggestions of the jirga on negotiations and the restoration of peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2013.