KOHAT, Feb 7: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that general elections and Senate polls will be held according to schedule and the parliament will complete its five-year term.

Addressing a public meeting here on Tuesday, he said that he was not a messenger to act as a postman between the opposition and the government on any issue.

He said that the people, who wanted early polls in the country, were critical of their own decision about boycotting 2008 elections.

“Now they want to enter the parliament through unconstitutional means,” he added.

The JUI chief said that government lacked courage to implement the parliamentary resolution against drone attacks.

He alleged that former president and chief of army staff had compromised on the sovereignty of the country.

He said that Pakistan had sacrificed 40,000 people and security personnel during the last one decade just for $4.5 billion, which resulted in price hike and unemployment in the country.

Mr Rehman said that the parliament passed a resolution to give tit-for-tat response to the US for killing 26 army men and drone attacks. “The vacation of Shamsi airbase and boycott of Bonn conference were temporary steps. We should end our relationship with the US,” he added.

The JUI chief said that the previous government had literally sold out the country to the US but had no written record of any agreement. About revival of Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal, he said that Jamaat-i-Islami was reluctant to join it, however, smaller religious parties were eager to make it functional again and take part in the next general elections under its umbrella.

The JUI chief said that they were trying to persuade JI to join MMA but it depended on how it reacted to the proposal. He said that pro-establishment political parties had divided the masses on sectarian and linguistic bases.

He said that only religious parties could guarantee a free and strong Pakistan and the secular parties just made hollow slogans to reach parliament for accumulating wealth.

Former chief minister Akram Durrani said that they could bring revolution through ballots and hoist the flag of JUI at the parliament in future.

He criticised Awami National Party for what he called compromising on the lives of Pakhtun children and women and selling out Waziristan.

Mr Durrani said that MMA stopped the US from taking over Pakistan after entering Afghanistan. He said that the mammoth public meetings of JUI in Karachi and Kohat were clear indication of masses’ no trust in the government.

Former MPA of ANP Shaukat Habib, president of PML-Q youth wing Arshad Sunni, PPP-Sherpao member Col (retired) Shahdad Khan and other new entrants were garlanded by Maulana Fazlur Rehman on joining JUI.