LAKKI MARWAT: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that secular forces are being strengthened to push back religious parties and promote western culture in the country.

“We countered those forces, who called us militants and conservative, in the assemblies and frustrated their malicious designs as they could not compete with us,” he told a ‘Fuzula conference’ on the night between Sunday and Monday.

He wore traditional turbans to the newly graduated clerics and asked the establishment to avoid creating obstacles to them. He said that his party would resist promotion of western culture in the country.

The JUI-F chief said that secular forces always made hue and cry when religious scholars demanded enforcement of Islamic law.

“Today’s enlightened moderation was considered ignorance during the time of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),” he added.

He said that defence and economic policies of the country were influenced by foreign powers.

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He said that it was needed to bring the policies within their ideological framework.

“On the occasion of inauguration of State Bank, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had said that our economic policies would be based on Islamic principles but today our policies are not free from western influence,” said the JUI-F chief.

He said that Nawaz Sharif was ousted in Panama case but those with biggest offshore companies saved their skin by making an alliance with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

He said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and PTI lawmakers and ministers completed five-year term by hurling allegations of corruption at each other but no institution came forward to take notice of it.

“PTI has accused 20 of its lawmakers of selling votes in Senate elections but let me say that all the eggs in Imran Khan’s basket are rotten,” said Mr Rehman. He alleged that millions of rupees were misappropriated in billion tsunami aforestation project as government failed to plant one billion trees.

“The champions of change did not fulfil the promises they had made with people,” he said. He added that they had claimed to construct 300 dams in the province but they could not build even a single one during the last five years.

The JUI-F chief said that Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal was revived and it would form the next government with the support of people.

Federal Minister Akram Khan Durrani, MPA Mnawar Khan, Pir Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi and JUI-F local leaders also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018