NAWABSHAH: The agenda of world powers is to keep religious parties away from power in Pakistan.

This was stated by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) while speaking at a big public gathering the party called ‘Babul Islam Sindh conference’ held at the SRTC ground here on Friday night.

The maulana, who is also president of the recently reactivated religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, criticised the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Pakistan’s politics. He alleged that people from NGOs were being sent to parliament through a well-planned conspiracy only to impose Western culture on the country.

He further said that it was the agenda of the United States to humiliate youngsters studying in madressahs so they may react [violently] and use their reaction as a pretext to close down the religious schools. He said selected people — nawabs, khans and feudals — were being imposed on the people as rulers. However, he added, the JUI-F would stand in the way of such people.

He criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party and said that a party with the motto of roti kapra aur makan was grabbing roti from the poor and removing shelter over their heads. However, he pledged, the religious parties would rid the people of these “cruel” rulers.

Criticises NGOs, PPP and PTI

He said tampering with the blasphemy and Khatm-i-Nubuwwat laws was an international conspiracy and NGOs were playing a role in it.

Maulana Fazl said that although the Supreme Court had announced a verdict against the interest-based system in the country, the decision was not being implemented.

He said the PML-N and the PPP both had been running the governments on loans though they criticised each other for doing so. Now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, was also following in their footsteps, he added.

He said that the rulers were unable to run the federal government, provincial administrations or even local bodies and every child was born with a huge debt burden. “So it is time to get rid of such rulers and save the country,” he remarked. “If Iran, Turkey and Sudan can come out of their economic crises, Pakistan can also do so.”

He said his party respected the army as it was their own national institution, but if the military establishment talked about politics or imposition of martial law, the JUI-F would resist such moves.

Maulana Mohammed Amjad, deputy general secretary of the JUI-F, Ameer Zaman, federal minister, Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2018