MULTAN: The Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has demanded the Pakistan Election Commission should hold fresh elections as the Pakistan Democratic Movement wanted no dialogue with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government.

“Neither we are ready to hold any negotiations [with the government], nor we are in its favour,” he told the media at a presser here on Thursday.

Scotching rumours of any rift in the 11-party opposition alliance he heads, the Maulana said:”All the [component] parties of the PDM are in contact [with each other], and the masses have expressed their bitterness towards the rulers”.

Again targeting the Imran Khan government, he said it had touched the bottom, not only in terms of its performance, but also with regard to ethics, referring to PML-N leader Capt retired Safdar’s arrest in Karachi, which he called a conspiracy to divide the opposition.

He endorsed the Karachi police’s reaction over Capt Safdar’s arrest, saying it was “effective”.

Announcing a “huge” PDM rally in Multan on Nov 30, he said: “We will continue holding public gatherings despite the threat of bomb blasts. We have to take careful decision regarding Gilgit Baltistan,”

He alleged that a “legal way” was being paved to “commit corruption” by giving amnesty to the chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority.

China’s trust had been damaged with regard to handling of the CPEC affairs by the government, he added.

The PDM head said that putting restrictions on the media and pressurising other institutions was a “dictatorial act”.

The Maulana said the opposition did not want Pakistan to have a sour relationship with America, “but we also want that these ties should be on equal grounds”.

Pointing out that Prime Minister Irman Khan used to criticise the army in the past, he said, “Is there any justification of his [Imran’s] previous stance,while our point of view [on the issue] is clear”.

He regretted that so far the government had failed to give any concrete response to the recent blast in a Peshawar madressah in which innocent children were killed.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2020