LAHORE: The rift within the JUI-F deepened on Tuesday with two more senior leaders from KPK Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan and Maulana Shujaul Mulk coming out to back Maulana Sheerani’s allegations against Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
According to sources, the rift may develop into cracks in the party or a possible split, and also cause serious dents in the PDM’s anti-government movement if JUI-F ameer and PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman does not resolve it soon.
Apart from veteran leader and parliamentarian Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, who was removed from the office of party spokesman last month for declaring PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif’s tirade against top army generals against the official policy of the party, many other leaders who had been voicing differences against Fazlur Rehman could also jump into the fray.
Maulana Sherani, former MNA and chairman of council of Islamic ideology (CII), had accused Maulana Fazlur Rehman of manipulating intra-party elections and awarding party tickets on the basis of wealth in total disregard to the loyalties of selfless leaders.
Maulana Gul Naseeb and Shuja ul Mulk also leveled similar allegations. Maulana Sheerani also alleged that “Maulana Fazlur Rehman himself is selected. How can he taunt and call Imran Khan and others selected?” Maulana Sheerani’s sudden outburst against Fazlur Rehman was generally believed to have been orchestrated by the government since he had also termed PDM an unnatural alliance bound to break up.
“Every component party in the 11-party alliance had its own interests. Being an unnatural alliance it would soon break up,”he said. Another veteran JUI-F leader from Balochistan and seasoned parliamentarian, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad while talking to The News said he was removed from the post of the party spokesman without giving any hearing when he told media that Nawaz Sharif’s direct allegations the army leadership was against JUI-F’s party policy.
Hafiz Hussain, who remained senator twice and MNA once in his career, said Maulana Fazlur Rehman himself backed his stance later by telling media that it was Nawaz Sharif’s personal views.
He said: “I made it clear to the seven-member inquiry committee headed by Sindh veteran leader Maulana Abdul Qayyum that I must be compensated and apologized for treating unfairly despite my seniority and services to the party spanning four decades.”
Hafiz Hussain alleged that Maulana Fazlur Rehman overruled the decisions of party Shoora many a times to which Shoora restrained itself from taking any action keeping in view his presidency and seniority.
Recalling such incidents, he said Maulana Fazlur Rehman had contested presidential elections against the Shoora’s decision, fielded his son as deputy speaker’s slot, and also awarded party tickets to external candidates on various occasions, like it was done in cases of Talha Mehmood, Azam Swati and others.
He said that there had been allegations of manipulations of party’s general council and political engineering before holding intra-party elections on more than one occasions. Besides, there was also a growing impression that the party had been turning into a family dynasty.
On the other hand, several party leaders in Punjab have asked Maulana Fazlur Rehman to take serious disciplinary action against Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani for violating party discipline and leveling baseless allegations against the party head.
A senior JUI-F leader told The News that Maulana Fazlur Rehman had already called a meeting of central leaders of the party on Dec 24 in Islamabad to discuss the allegations of Maulana Sherani and take necessary action.
He said Maulana Sherani was not representing any section of party workers since he had lost elections consecutively for the last many years. He said his accusations against Fazlur Rehman were baseless.
