PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ule­ma-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Reh­man claimed on Saturday that Pakistan had been facing economic pressure from different segments to recognise Israel.

Speaking at a corner meeting of party workers, he alleged that the previous PTI government had been “backed by Jews” to come to power with the agenda of “withdrawing support from Kashmir, recognising Israel and disintegrating Pakistan”.

On the Gaza conflict, the JUI-F chief said the Israeli invasion of the enclave had brought the Palestine issue to the limelight again, stressing that indiscriminate bombing of the residential population in the Gaza Strip was a war crime.

Questioning the silence of human rights champions over Israel’s barbar­ism, he said the US bom­bed Afgha­nis­tan for 20 years and still claimed to be the defender of rights, adding that the US and other Western nations had destroyed Iraq, Libya and Syria.

“They perpetuate atrocities on people and then claim to be the champions of human rights,” he said.

On the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa, the JUI-F chief said locals were “hoodwinked in the name of the merger”. However, the tribal people had neither been fully settled in the province nor had retained special status, he said, claiming when he opposed Fata merger, the “powers that be” told him they were being pressured by international powers to do so.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2023