Govt's days are numbered, Fazlur Rehman tells PM Imran

Published November 19, 2019
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman addressing participants of a sit-in on Tuesday in Bannu.— DawnNewsTV
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman addressing participants of a sit-in on Tuesday in Bannu.— DawnNewsTV

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday declared that the government's days are numbered and that the JUI-F's drive had successfully mobilised masses to remove the ruling regime.

Addressing the participants of a sit-in at Bannu, the JUI-F chief strongly criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and said that the rulers were either incapable or they were working under an agenda of destroying the country through crippling its economy.

"Prime Minister Imran Khan is trying to become 'Gorbachev' of Pakistan," he said, referring to the former Russian president largely credited with decentralising the country's economy, bringing an end to the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union.

"Your roots have been cut, you have been shaken, now count your days," Rehman warned the prime minister.

Talking about the party's Azadi March, which had culminated in Islamabad, he said that the JUI-F didn't go to the capital without any purpose, neither did it return without any purpose.

The JUI-F leader further said that the prime minister accused everyone of theft but offered NRO [a reference to Pervez Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance under which cases against political leaders and workers were quashed] to his sister.

"The income from a sewing machine has reached to Rs70 billion," he remarked.

Rehman alleged that the PTI took funds from abroad. The founding members of the party had lodged a case in this regard against the leadership but for the last five years, the case has been pending, he added.

He said that the PTI submitted around 60 pleas against hearing of the case. "You are the one who took money from Israel and India," he accused the prime minister, while referring to the foreign funding case.

"I challenge you, in my personal capacity, to come and compare my character with yours, and the characters of our forefathers," he said, adding that the entire PTI was corrupt.

The JUI-F chief also defended the participation of seminary students in the protest drive, saying that they have the right to cast their vote and to question theft of their votes. A day earlier, Prime Minister Imran, criticising the JUI-F leadership, had said ordinary workers braved the cold and rain during the sit-in. He said that Rehman had brought innocent students of seminaries on roads by telling them that the prime minister was going to recognise Israel and that Islam was in danger.

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