PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emir Maulana Attaur Rehman on Friday said that his party’s leaders and workers wouldn’t hesitate to march on Islamabad if the leadership issued orders for it for the sake of democracy in the country.

Addressing a news conference at the JUI-F provincial headquarters here, Mr Rehman said that some quarters, unhappy with his party’s successful public meeting in Kasur on July 11, took “half a sentence from party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s speech and created a media storm” across the country.

He noted that there was no mention of those remarks in print, electronic or social media until July 12 but the next day, an outcry was “manufactured over out-of-context comments”.

Mr Rehman said the JUI-F chief had been asked to apologise for remarks. He added that those criticising Mr Fazl should have the courage to broadcast his speech in its entirety.

“Maulana Fazlur Rehman is vilified on social media over an out-of-context excerpt from his speech,” he said.

The JUI-F leader said that the entire campaign was aimed at diminishing Mr Fazl’s importance in national politics and reducing the party to just one region or province.

He said that Mr Fazl’s growing influence was rattling his political opponents.

Mr Rehman said that JUI-F KP fully supported the party emir and its main narrative.

He said that sacrifices offered by the party leadership and workers had no parallels in the country’s history, as 83 of its workers laid down their lives in a single gathering in Bajaur alone.

The JUI-F leader said despite the killing of its leaders and workers, Mr Fazl’s narrative did not pander to emotions and the party continued to stand with the state and democracy. He, however, said that the JUI-F chief himself was targeted three times, while his Dera Ismail Khan house and his brothers and sons were attacked.

“We do not know what the state wants to convey and achieve,” he said.

Mr Rehman said that the JUI-F has also stood with the state and its institutions on all occasions, be it the war with India or the war against terror, when the party gathered religious scholars from across the country to deliver a fatwa against terrorism.

He said that the state and its institutions should register a case against Mr Fazl if they could.

The JUI-F leader said the party’s KP chapter fully supported the stand and its workers were ready to go to Islamabad if the leadership directed them to do so for the sake of democracy.

He said that the JUI-F chief’s speech should be aired in full so that the people could know in what context those remarks were made.

Mr Rehman said that his party’s leadership respected soldiers but it was not correct for the military generals to demand the same while acting on their own whims.

“If the generals are really not involved in politics and do not rig elections, then we will admit we made a mistake,” he said.

He wondered if calling a blind person blind was wrong, then what he should be called.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2026