Changing track: Fazl conditionally ready to rejoin govt

JUI-F chief says the party is willing to rejoin coalition provided their reservations are removed by the government.

ISLAMABAD: The JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has expressed his willingness to rejoin the PPP-led coalition government with a few “ifs” and “buts”.

“We are willing to re-join the coalition provided our reservations are removed by the government,” Maulana Fazl told his party workers at a convention at Shahi Bagh Peshawar on Sunday.

“We are political people and politics is not a treason …it was not our own choice to quit the federal government … we were forced to say good-bye to the coalition (government),” he said.

“We know how to maintain friendship, but government leaders are not aware of the basic rules and ethics of friendship,” he added.

Criticising the ever-increasing influence of the US on Pakistan’s internal and external policies, Fazl said the PPP government must ensure the country’s national interest. “It is in our national interest to keep a distance with Washington,” he said, adding that “RGST is being imposed on the people due to increasing pressure exerted by Washington”.

He said the military operation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is being carried out against the resolutions adopted by the parliament. “JUI-F is against the politics of violence and gun,” he said while explaining his party’s policies. “We are political people and we want to resolve all issues by political means.”

The proposed amendment in the blasphemy laws and plans to introduce laws to bring religious seminaries under government control was the part of American scheme and Western agenda.

Fazl added that the rulers have turned the country into a colony of the US which was not acceptable to the people of Pakistan.

Referring to the withdrawal of US and Nato troops from Afghanistan next year the Maulana said that Washington would like to maintain its very active presence in the region if at all its troops were withdrawn from Kabul. “Americans will continue to use Pakistan soil for their strategic interests.”

He said that the military operations in different parts of the country were declared as a landmark success but without the withdrawal of troops from any areas.

The JUI-F chief said that intelligence agencies were pressuring Kashmiris to surrender before the Indians at the behest of Americans because it was in the interest of Washington to push Pakistan into a war on its western borders.

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