It’s not Sufi music: Fazl takes another dig at PTI and its rallies

JUI-F chief says he was never informed about investigations into attacks

ISLAMABAD:

Maulana Fazlur Rehman heaped scorn at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leaders for their stout defence of playing “songs and dances” at their rallies and sit-ins on Saturday, saying it was nothing more than a pop music concert.

“So, you think PTI’s sit-in is spreading the message of Islam,” the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief said laughing when asked about his comments over PTI’s stance that Sufi music was part of indigenous culture.

PTI information secretary Dr Shireen Mazari had hit hard at the JUI-F chief who, she said, “is spreading hatred and encouraging violence by using foul language against PTI, especially its women.”



However, on Saturday JUI-F chief was visibly seen enjoying PTI’s criticism with no change in his stance that its sit-ins were musical concerts with dances of boys and girls.

Addressing the media after a meeting with Advisor to PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Maulana Fazl said that the PTI and its criticism were not worth commenting on.

Quetta attack

On Thursday the JUI-F chief had escaped suicide attack on Meckangi Road of Quetta, moments after he ended his address at a rally in Sadiq Shaheed football ground.

Fazl said that though he has been targeted earlier, he was never informed about the progress into the investigations or the status of the cases. “There had been several attacks on me in the past, but I was never informed about the attackers.

This time again, some high-ups called on me after the attack, but no one shared any details of the attack,” he complained.

The JUI-F chief said that starting from the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, several high profile personalities have become victims of terrorism, but the perpetrators have not been traced.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2014.