Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday came out in open support of the PTI’s democratic and constitutional rights to hold protests and rallies.

The JUI-F and the PTI had reached a consensus in the aftermath of February’s elections and announced that the elections were rigged. The parties have since touched base on protesting against the government, but the JUI-F has not been included in a six-party opposition alliance against the incumbent government.

The JUI-F was a spearhead and major part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government that came to power after ousting the PTI regime through a no-confidence vote.

Supporters of the PTI took out rallies across Karachi on Friday to protest the incarceration of party founder Imran Khan, and demanded that the judiciary take notice of the “highhandedness” of the authorities for denying the party its constitutional right to protest whenever it announced to take to the streets.

In the National Assembly session today, PTI leader Asad Qaiser requested Speaker Ayaz Sadiq for Parliament to ensure the party’s constitutional right to protest.

“I want to know why the PTI is not being given its due rights,” Qaiser said. “We want civilian supremacy and free courts,” he added.

Speaking after the PTI leader, Fazl said: “Asad Qaiser’s request is fair. Protesting is his [party’s] right and I endorse his request.”

However, Fazl added that the problem “goes beyond the right to protest” and is about the “state of the country”.

“The democratic way in which we founded this country … with people’s sacrifices … there was no role of the establishment or bureaucracy,” Fazl said, questioning whether Parliament was “a house of the people … or the establishment”.

“There are people who talk about democracy, but where is it?” he asked. “We can’t make the laws we want. Who will call these houses the people’s Parliament?”

Calling on PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and President Shehbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he said: “Leave this power. Come and sit here [in the opposition benches] and if the PTI is indeed the larger group [with seats] then give them the government.”

Fazl accused the governing parties of pursuing their mandates and interests while putting those of the country on the back burner.

He also criticised the establishment’s “meddling” in politics, saying politicians were left in the end to shoulder the blame.