Says JUI-F to join assemblies despite record vote-rigging n Rejects election results, announces countrywide protests n If establishment believes elections were free and fair that means May 9 narrative buried.
ISLAMABAD - Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Wednesday said that his party’s elected members will join assemblies to play their parliamentary role, despite reservations.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he said an election defeat was inflicted on his party under a planning and pressure from international anti-Islam forces. Maulana Fazlur Rehman also invited Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Supremo Nawaz Sharif to join hands with him and sit on the opposition benches.
He said JUI-F was an ideological party and also ruled out the possibility of any alliance with political parties saying we are not going to have any alliance with any party. The JUI-F Central Executive Committee (CEC), which lasted two days, had rejected poll results, he said.
To a question he said, we were not subordinate to the PML-N and PPP. Speaking about JUI-F’s meeting with its capital and provincial bodies, he said the meeting of JUI-F was scheduled for February 22 in Islamabad, followed by in Balochistan on February 25.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the JUI-F would hold its meeting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on February 27. The party will also hold its meeting in Sindh on March 3 and on March 5 in Lahore, he said.
He also announced to launch a protest campaign against alleged vote rigging for which he asked his workers to get ready for peaceful protests across the country.
“The Parliament has lost its importance and democracy is losing its case. It looks like the decisions will now be taken on the streets and not Parliament,” he said. Rejecting the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) statement in which it declared the polls free and fair, the JUI-F chief said the rigging witnessed during these polls was unprecedented.
He said the JUI-F wanted an assembly that was truly represented by the people, “without the intervention from the establishment”. He claimed his party was defeated through “unprecedented poll-rigging.”
“Our fault is that we played our role in mending the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and spoke up against Israeli atrocities in Gaza and supported Hamas, which is not acceptable to the US.”
He said if the establishment believed the elections were free and fair, then that means the army’s May 9 statement has been buried. Having a considerable representation in the outgoing National Assembly, Maulana was the key player in vote of no-confidence against ousted premier Imran Khan and his party remained in sixteen months’ long multiparty government.
He remained a symbol of resistance throughout the tenure of Imran Khan as it was his party, which fuelled anti-government movement with its ground level strength. However, JUI is perturbed with election results because of reduced representation in national as well as provincial assemblies.
The party was considering itself as a favourite choice for KPK government where once it ruled during 2002-08 but it could not succeed in the general elections.
Some of the insiders from circles concerned believe that Maulana would eventually join the government but he is playing his cards very carefully and wanted to get his maximum possible share in the power corridors.
It is also a test for Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz that how they will bend an old ally in its favour as Maulana had proved himself an iron man during hard times.