CHARSADDA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday that parliamentary elections in Afghanistan did not carry any legitimacy in the presence of foreign forces.

Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, he said elections in the war-torn country were meaningless and would not put any positive impact on the country’s future.

He argued that Afghanistan was an occupied territory where America and other countries had stationed their troops.

“As the right of self-determination has no substitution in the Indian held Kashmir, same is the case of Afghanistan,” he replied when asked about the parliamentary polls in the neighbouring country.

He was of the view that a puppet government had been installed in Kabul which did not enjoy support of the Afghan nation.

He said negotiations were the only way to end four-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

Mr Rehman said Pakistan had been handed over to “incapable” people by rigging the July 25 general elections.

He said he did not accept the results of the general elections as these were ‘engineered and rigged’. He predicted that international lending institutions, including IMF, won’t extend bailout package to Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2018