ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) will boycott the upcoming by-elections of national and provincial assemblies and instead launch protest movement from Balochistan on April 25 against ‘massive rigging’ in the Feb 8 general elections, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Reh­man announced on Wednesday.

“The letter of the six judges of the Islamabad High Court to the Chief Justice of Pakistan has confirmed my party’s position that this parliament is the representative of the ‘establishment’ and not elected by the people,” the Maulana said in a video statement released on social media by the party.

The JUI-F chief said he had already rejected the results of the Feb 8 polls, explaining that voters had been cheated in both 2018 and 2024 general elections.

This year, people’s right to vote was “killed, not just stolen”, he remarked, adding that his party had decided not to accept the results.

Unveils plan for public meetings in Pishin, Karachi and Peshawar

He said that since the incumbent parliament was not much of people’s representative body and more of a representative of the establishment, the JUI-F decided to go to the people.

“The masses have to be taken into confidence and people have to be united to know the importance of vote.”

Maulana Fazl said his party would launch the countrywide protest movement from Pishin on April 25.

He called the public meetings “people’s assembly”, announcing that after the JUI-F’s power show in Pishin, another People’s Assembly would be held on May 2 in Karachi where its supporters from across Sindh would gather.

A week later, the JUI-F would hold a power show in Pesh­awar where the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would gather to express their lack of confidence in the current political set-up.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan officials were ‘helpless’ as they were unable to compile the results on time.

He said there was interference into the affairs of civil bureaucracy and judiciary.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2024