SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that ‘fake’ mandate and ‘selected’ prime minister stand completely exposed with all their failures before the nation and now people neither want ‘minus-one’ nor local government polls; they want only general elections.

It was the only solution to multiple crises this country had been facing since the present regime had taken over, said the maulana while talking to party leaders who came to meet him after his arrival in the city on Monday.

The maulana made a stopover in Sukkur on his way to Karachi where he will preside over a multiparty conference to be hosted by his party on July 9, said a press release issued by the party’s spokesman.

He accused the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government of pursuing the agenda of international imperial forces. Inflation, unemployment and lawlessness were part of the conspiracy aimed at weakening national economy and creating political, ideological and moral chaos in society, he said.

He said that political forces would have to show maturity and make decisions that protected people and saved the country. The present rulers who claimed to follow the model of the state of Madina were instead trying to westernise the country by ending political role of religious forces, seminaries and ulema and controlling them in the name of so-called reforms.

The maulana called it part of Western agenda and rejected it outright. “Neither did we accept it in past nor will we ever bow to agents of the West in future,” he said.

He said that the ulema, seminaries and religious forces had very important role to play in the state of Madina but the present rulers were bent on ending their role on the diktats of their “lords”. But they would never succeed and God willing religious forces would continue to play an important role in future as well, he said.

He said that seminaries and mosques would continue to be significant political centres of the state and urged ulema to take the field against the rulers.

He said the incompetent rulers had made institutions controversial although it was their job to strengthen the institutions and increase their prestige before the world. The country would be strong if the institutions were strengthened, he said.

The maulana said that by passing the buck to past rulers the inefficient rulers were trying to befool people. But their days were numbered now and even minus-one could not save them because the entire team was incompetent.

The party leaders Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Abdul Qayyum Halejvi, Maulana Nasir Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Abdullah Pahor, Sain Abdullah Mahar, Maulana Mohammad Ishaq Leghari, Maulana Ramzan Phulpoto and others were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2020