Estranged ally: JUI-F not to support calls for midterm polls
In its meeting on Wednesday, JUI-F’s central executive committee also decided that it will not quit the ruling coalition in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“We do not want midterm elections ... we want elections on time [at scheduled time]” was the response of JUI-F to a question that a reporter asked after the committee’s meeting.
In the past few days, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has made several attempts to convince JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to change his decision to quit the government in the center. But Fazl has not budged an inch from his position.
The PPP also appears to be at odds with ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) but Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has ruled out any in-house change. Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, he said that some people might wish to bring such a change but he does not see it on the cards.
He said that the present tension with Fazl was a personal matter between the PPP and the JUI-F. He refused to comment on Fazl’s grievance that his party had not been taken into confidence before ousting two federal ministers over the Hajj scam, saying that the matter was sub judice.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in his press conference after the committee’s meeting, said that the JUI-F’s central executive committee has endorsed the party leadership’s decision to quit the federal government and decided that it will empower local chapters to decide the fate of their coalition with the PPP in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
However, responding to a question regarding party policy towards governments in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, he said that the JUI-F would not take a decision that negatively impacts the country’s politics.
When asked about the revival of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition that the JUI-F was a part of, Fazl said: “There are reports that Jamaat-e-Islami’s shura is yet to take a clear decision on the matter.” When asked if JUI-F favours midterm elections, Fazl said his party wants that the next elections are held at the scheduled time.
He appealed to the people to observe a protest at mosques across the country on December 24 against the government’s intentions to bring changes in the blasphemy laws. He also appealed to the trader community to observe a strike on December 31 to pressurise the government on the issue of amending blasphemy laws.
Speaking about investigations against former federal minister for housing Rehmatullah Kakar, Fazl said that it is a case of political victimisation.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2010.
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