NOWSHERA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has advised Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan to control his own lawmakers instead of hurling accusations at others and punishing the whole assembly.

He was addressing the participants of cultural Islamic mela at Jamia Usmania in Pabbi here on Wednesday. He claimed that Mr Khan did not trust his own MPAs in the provincial assembly and as such he had been issuing contradictory statements and tarnishing the image of other elected representatives.

Also read :Imran accuses PPP of horse-trading in collusion with JUI-F

He said that selling votes was a worse crime than buying votes. “Imran Khan should not punish the whole assembly if his MPAs are involved in selling votes in the Senate election,” he said.

Mr Rehman said that secret vote was part of democracy where each member cast his vote according to his conscience and the practice should not be scrapped on the wishes of a single person.

He said that the government had formed the electoral reforms committee about four months ago and Mr Khan should have timely called its meeting to decide about the procedure of casting vote in the Senate,” he said, adding Mr Khan was demanding amendments when the election date had arrived.

He said that the PTI chief had adopted double standard as he had barred his party MPAs from casting votes in Punjab and Sindh assemblies while participating the Senate elections from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The JUI-F chief asked the organisers of religious seminaries to also provide education of science and English to their students. He said that the British had divided the people of sub-continent during their rule between the universities and Madressahs, but Sheikhul Hind went to the Aligarh University and met with Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar. He said that this way Sheikhul Hind had foiled the attempt of Britishers to divide the people of sub-continent.

“Europe has divided us into different sects and casts, but we have to shun differences to perform like one united nation on every matter,” he said. JUI-F provincial chief Gul Naseeb Khan and general secretary Maulana Shujaul Mulk were also present on this occasion.

Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015

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