PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has slammed both Islamabad and Washington for not recognising Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

“America should immediately recognise the Taliban government in the light of Doha agreement with the latter,” he said while addressing members of JUI-F provincial general council here on Sunday.

“Pakistan’s silence over recognition of the new government in Kabul is beyond understanding. The present government had left Afghans in the lurch who had struggled against foreign powers and aggressors for 40 years,” he said. He was of the view that the international community would have to make some serious decisions to secure the future of Afghanistan.

The general council meeting was started at JUI-F provincial secretariat on Friday. The organisers said that more than 1,000 members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including tribal districts attended sessions of the council, which discussed prevailing political situation in the country and Afghanistan.

JUI-F chief says international community will have to make serious decisions to secure future of Afghanistan

Addressing the concluding session of the council, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the federal government had planned to introduce new laws in the parliament which he claimed were repugnant to Islamic laws. For this purpose, he said, the government was pressurising lawmakers to support the new laws.

He said that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was pursuing western agenda. “I have made predictions that the PTI government would promote western values and immodesty in the society and my predictions to this effect are coming true,” he added.

The JUI-F chief said that government had planned to bring domestic violence bill, introduce new laws in the name of regulating seminaries and ban underage conversion to Islam while Ahamdis were also patronised.

He said that Pakistan was isolated in the international community because of the flawed foreign policy of the present government. He said that PTI had annoyed some time-tested and close neighbours of Pakistan through its immature policies and irresponsible statements of the ministers.

The JUI-F chief said that the country was at the crossroad owing to bad governance and financial mismanagement. He said that hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and prices of essential commodities were going high. He added that people could not afford to fulfil their basic needs.

He said that inflation touched the highest level in the country and rupees depreciated to a record low against the US dollar.

Without naming Pakistan Peoples Party and Awami National Party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that some people had made attempts to weaken Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), but they failed. He said that PDM showed its strength by organising mammoth rally in Karachi.

Earlier, the general council decided that the party would organise Maulana Mufti Mahmood Conference in Peshawar on October 14. Leaders of PDM, the nine political parties’ alliance against the government, would also address the conference. Maulana Fazlur Rehman is president of the alliance.

A statement said that the council expressed satisfaction over the JUI-F preparations for next local government elections and general elections in the province. The council expressed resentment over record increase in the prices of petroleum products, food items and devaluation of rupees against the US dollar.

The council was informed that the party was mobilising its workers and people against the ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘un-constitutional’ steps of the government.

Expressing concerns over imposition of new taxes on traders, delay in investigation in alleged irregularities in mega projects like Peshawar’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the statement reiterated JUI-F’s commitment that people would not be left alone at that critical time.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2021