LANDI KOTAL: Chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman has questioned the silence of political forces on what he called the political chaos in the country.

“I don’t understand why the political forces in the country have adopted silence while people are committing suicides and jobs are being snatched from them,” he said while addressing a big public meeting in Jamrud on Sunday as part of his nationwide million march against the government.

The JUI-F chief demanded of Prime Minister Imran Khan to concede his failure and immediately resign from his position. He said that abrupt changes in the federal cabinet was a proof of failure of the federal government’s policies.

Asks PM Imran to concede failure and step down

He said that changes in the ministries and resignation of the finance minister were in fact personal failure of the prime minister to fulfil his election promises. He alleged that a ‘fake’ prime minister was imposed on the Pakistani electorate through a ‘fake’ election, but the people would not submit to the pressure of accepting a ‘fake’ government which was imposed on them.

The Maulana said that an impression was created before 2018 general elections that the role of religious parties had ended, but the participation of a large number of ordinary people in his million march was a testimony to the active role of such forces in the country’s politics.

Calling the presidential form of government a dictatorship, he said that his party would not accept the presidential form of government as was suggested and discussed by the ruling party.

Criticising the foreign policy of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, he claimed that relations with Afghanistan, India and Iran were not cordial as border with Afghanistan had been made controversial while fencing of the Iran border was started. “How can the government claim about a successful foreign policy in such a hostile environment on borders,” he said.

The JUI-F chief said that his party would not abandon the people of tribal districts who had overwhelmingly rejected the Fata-KP merger plan. He said that both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments had been befooling the people of tribal areas with announcements of allocation of billions of rupees fund for development.

“Even the KP government also has expressed its inability along with other provinces to give its share for tribal districts’ development from the National Finance Commission award,” he said and added that the governance system had collapsed after the region’s merger with KP.

He said that his party would continue to oppose the unnatural merger of tribal areas with KP as it was done against the aspiration of majority of tribal people. “The merger has compounded the miseries of tribal people as the region is virtually without a proper governance system,” he alleged.

The Maulana said that the rulers were not capable of running the government affairs and had assigned the ministry of Safron to one of its ministers while the said ministry had long been abolished. He announced to put up stiff resistance if the government tried to abolish the 18th Amendment.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2019