PESHAWAR: Expressing reservations about the establishment of the Kartarpur corridor, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday said it was ironic that on one hand, the government had closed the country’s border with Afghanistan but on the other, it had opened border with the country’s archrival, India.

“This is very strange that Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan has been sealed, while the policy towards India has been softened by establishing a new corridor on the eastern border,” he told the one-day ‘Tribal Rights Conference’ here.

Parliamentarians and elders from the merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the conference.

Says govt put Kashmir issue on back burner

The JUI-F has opposed the merger of the erstwhile Fata with KP.

Mr Fazl said the government had put the Kashmir issue on the back burner.

“Ironically, the government is improving ties with India despite the continuous bloodshed in held Kashmir, while a war-like situation is being created on the western border,” he said.

The JUI-F chief said the people of the merged districts and Afghans had been suffering from a war for four decades.

“The tribal people and Afghans should be provided with an opportunity to live peacefully,” he said.

Mr Fazl said the unilateral friendship with India would not be beneficial for the country and that Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had turned down the invitation to participate in the Saarc conference to be held in Islamabad despite the opening of Kartarpur corridor.

He insisted that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa shouldn’t attend such functions otherwise he, too, would face criticism.

“The military should keep itself from the Kartarpur like functions,” he said.

The JUI-F chief alleged that the opening of the Kartarpur corridor was meant to facilitate a particular non-Muslim community on the pretext of Sikh community.

Terming the prime minister immature and unreliable, he said Gen Bajwa accompanied Imran Khan during the visit to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Miramshah and Kartarpur functions so that the premier couldn’t utter something foolish.

“Had Nawaz Sharif or any other leader delivered a speech like the one Imran made yesterday (at Kartarpur corridor, they would have been declared traitors,” he said.

Mr Fazl alleged that the military establishment had imposed a fake prime minister on the country through a dummy parliament.

“Imran Khan has come to power through a backdoor,” he said.

The JUI-F chief said the ill-planned merger of the erstwhile Fata with KP had created uncertainty and confusion.

He said the 25th Constitutional Amendment was passed by parliament ‘blindly’ and that the government was unable to manage the situation. Mr Fazl said the tribal areas were merged with KP but the provincial Assembly did not allocate a single penny for them in the annual budget.

“The area (erstwhile Fata) has been merged with the province but ironically, the KP police cannot go there,” he said, adding that he had advised the previous government not to take that decision in haste.

He said the government could not handle situation in the merged districts, whose people were disappointed. The JUI-F chief said Pakistan was paying price for involving itself in the Afghan war and that he had told former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf not to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

He said the military establishment had admitted that it helped the US kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad though earlier, it denied any role in the operation and accused the US of conducting the raid unilaterally.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018