PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that a plan is under consideration to change the status of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and declare it as a separate province.

Addressing the party’s general council meeting here on Saturday, he said that JUI-F had opposed the plan and passed a resolution at the all parties conference not to change the existing status of Azad Kashmir.

“The plan about changing the status of Azad Kashmir is still under consideration, but JUI-F would insist not to change the position of Azad Kashmir,” said Maulana Fazl.

Says JUI-F has already opposed the idea

The two-day general council meeting of JUI-F started in Peshawar, in which over 900 members were participating. The council would discuss the prevailing political scenario, upcoming by-elections and the next general elections in the country.

About the prevailing situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly the merged districts, the JUI-F chief said that armed people surfaced in the region when peace talks started. He said that unarmed civilians were confronting armed people in the region.

He said that his party believed in sustainable peace and was ready for playing a role in this regard, but at the same time the JUI-F leaders and workers also wanted their safety to be guaranteed. He said that his party was being punished for its role in supremacy of the Constitution.

Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Maulana Fazl said that he had been warning from the very beginning that former prime minister Imran Khan was a foreign agent and that he was receiving funds from America and India.

He said that his (Maulana) close friends were stating that his stance, regarding the PTI, was unnecessarily harsh, but the recent disclosures, particularly the foreign funding case, had exposed Imran Khan.

He said that his party had never made a compromise with foreign agents. He said the JUI-F brought all genuine political forces on one platform and gave a message that Pakistan was politically stable. He claimed that no law in the country had been made in accordance with Islamic principles, since 1973.

“Anarchy becomes inevitable when a country is on verge of default,” he said, and added that there were certain forces within the provinces who wanted such a catastrophe to occur so they could exploit the situation.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022