PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami’s countrywide ‘Operation Zarb-i-Azb like drive against corruption’ has taken an ironic turn as the party’s own senior leader heading the finance ministry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is caught in the crossfire after the Bank of Khyber advertised against his ‘corrupt’ practices.

JI emir Sirajul Haq, who himself remained the provincial finance minister twice, had been making fiery speeches and running the countrywide campaign against corruption of other political leaders.

He had been comparing his campaign to the military’s Operation Zarb-i-Azb against militants.

The JI, the coalition partner of the ruling PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is in an embarrassing situation after a quarter-page advertisement appeared in national dailies accusing its finance minister, Muzafar Said, of malpractices.

The advertisement, which carried serious allegations of the misuse of powers against the minister, was issued by the province-owned Bank of Khyber. Its cost will be borne by the provincial exchequer.

The JI promptly rejected the allegations and demanded that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak order an inquiry against the BOK managing director for releasing advertisement to newspapers and expose ‘culprits’ behind the ‘character assassination’ of it and its minister, Muzafar Said.

The minister gave a rebuttal to the BOK management through a similar advertisement on Monday.

Insider insists bureaucrats taking JI ministers for granted, not entertaining their summaries

Like other religious parties, the JI immediately took the cover of religion to suppress the allegations instead of coming clear on them.

Its provincial chief, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, said since the bank’s management was not happy with the promotion of Islamic banking system in BOK, it resorted to baseless allegations against the minister.

On the face of it, the issue looked like a dispute between the minister and BOK managing director Shamsul Qayyum, but Chief Minister Pervez Khattak termed it a conspiracy against the coalition government.

The disgruntled JI however doesn’t feel the chief minister to be so naïve not to have seen it come.

Sources in the JI said the advertisement in newspapers was not that simple issue and not necessarily a row between the minister and the BOK management.

“It speaks of the long drawn differences between the JI and the bureaucracy and the chief minister is enjoying the situation,” an insider confided to Dawn.

“The Jamaat has a long list of grievances against its coalition partner and the tirade against the minister is an attempt to discredit the party and its ministers,” he said.

The insider added that there was a serious debate inside the party to leave the coalition government even before the BOK issue.

“The real issue is that bureaucracy is taking the JI’s ministers for granted and their official summaries are not entertained,” he said.

“This is causing embarrassment for the party.”

Other sources in the party said the JI’s top leadership had been under pressure from within the party to quit the coalition government and say goodbye to the PTI.

They said the PTI didn’t take JI on board on important issues, including rigging and mismanagement in the local government elections, delegating powers from district nazims to bureaucracy, and re-induction of Qaumi Watan Party in the coalition government.

The sources said the JI and the PTI were not on the same page on the latter’s three months long sit-in in Islamabad.

“The coming two months are very crucial for the coalition and the JI may part its ways with the PTI before or after the coming annual budget,” said another source in the Jamaat.

Former JI provincial chief Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan said the allegations against a sitting minister was a matter of concern for the ruling coalition and that the chief minister had assured the JI leadership that he would take serious action against the bank’s MD.

He, however, said there was no immediate threat to the JI-PTI coalition.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016