Fazl sees fresh polls as only panacea for all ills

PESHAWAR: Maulana Fazlur Rahman was elected unopposed for another five-year term as central president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was chosen as general secretary following intra-party polls of the party here on Sunday.

Maulana Mohammad Amjad and Maulana Khalil Ahmad proposed the name of Maulana for the party president’s office. All the participants rose and raised their hands to welcome the Maulana as the chief of the party. No one turned up to contest the polls against Fazl.

Similarly, Maulana Rashid Khalid Mehmud and Maulana Jamilur Rahman Darkhwasti Darvesh proposed the name of Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for the office of general secretary and he too was elected unanimously for the position for another five-year tenure.

Addressing a press conference after his re-election, the Maulana said JUIF regularly conducted intra-party elections after five years. “This year it took two and a half months to complete the polls process during which a new membership campaign was also run,” he added.

Regarding the constitutional amendment, he said the government and other political parties had visited him. “We had reservations over the amendments. The first phase is over and the government failed to convene a session of parliament for the amendment. Now, it will come up with another draft. The Pakistan Peoples Party is working on its own draft and so are JUIF and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The amendment should be made unanimously,” he said.

Fazl said the incumbent parliament did not have the mandate to do such a major amendment. “The amendment should not be person-specific and for political gains. It should be meant for reforms in the judiciary in line with the recommendations of Charter of Democracy that was inked in 2006,” he added.

He said the February 8 general elections were massively rigged to keep the JUIF out of the political arena. “But we will stand firm in the public despite all those rigging practices used against us,” he added.

The JUIF chief said the governments, both at the Centre and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were fake and fresh elections were the only panacea for all ills. He said lawlessness and violence had brought life to a standstill in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. “The issue of missing persons is at its worst in both the provinces. A handful of militant groups are holding KP hostage and the government has completely lost its writ,” he added.

A war, he claimed, was in progress in the southern districts of the province and the government is complete mum over the situation.

The JUIF chief said that the situation in the tribal districts was much better before the merger. The tribal areas were merged with the province purely under US pressure, which was a major blow to the country’s sovereignty, he added. “If a referendum is carried out about the merger in tribal areas, the people would overwhelmingly vote against it,” he claimed.

Fazlur Rehman said that the promises made with the people at the time of the merger could not be materialized. “Funds amounting to Rs800 billion had been promised for the rehabilitation and uplift but, unfortunately, even Rs1 billion could not be given to the tribal districts,” he added. He parried a question about the statements of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, adding he considered speaking about such statements below his dignity. However, he said that a person sitting in a responsible position should avoid such a diatribe, which he considered nothing more than a childish attitude. “His (Gandapur) party is there. The party leaders are there. They must make arrangements for political gatherings and issue political statements. Why is a man occupying such an important official position getting involved in such silly practices? Why is he trying to create confrontation among the provinces?” he said.

If they want to stage a political gathering, he said, they could better do it in the province where they were in power. However, he considered the ban on political gatherings against political norms. Permissions should be given to political gatherings.

To a question about the governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said that no such decision should be taken. The province should not be pushed to governor’s rule, he said.

Regarding the situation in Palestine, he said that Israel had expanded the war. The martyrdom of Hassan Nasrullah was the second massive shock to the Muslim world after Ismail Haniyeh. The Muslim world should forge unity in the ranks and enunciate a joint defense strategy. He said that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Egypt could come forward and lead the Muslim world in the hour of trial. “Muslim countries should unite and foil the designs of Israel,” he said. The JUIF chief lauded the speech of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the United Nations.