CHITRAL, Sept 23: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that parliament is no more a supreme institution, as it has been bypassed repeatedly by the government in policy formulation at the behest of America.

Addressing ‘Islam Zindabad Conference’ at Polo Ground here on Sunday, Mr Rehman said that the government had been making a mockery of democracy and trampling people’s aspirations. He said that Pakistan was playing the proxy war of the US on its own soil and people were paying a huge price for it. He also said that in such a situation the country’s sovereignty was also at stake.

He said that Pakistan had suffered a loss of $90 billion in the so-called war against terrorism and in return it got only $6 billion from America. He said that during the course of this illegal war about 4,000 Pakistanis were killed, while the country suffered colossal financial loss, causing steep rise in poverty.

The JUI-F chief said that they had always raised their voice for dissociating the country from the so-called war on terror and making parliament a supreme institution, which could do legislation based on the recommendation of Council of Islamic Ideology.

He said that they had been raising real issues of people in parliament and asking the government to take a bold step to pull the country out of the crisis.

“We parted ways with the government and told them loudly that we are no more with you to pander to the whims of your foreign bosses,” the JUI-F chief said, adding that despite less number of the party legislators they succeeded in delivering their message.

Mr Rehman said that the JUI-F had blocked the attempt of the government to present a bill in parliament and get it passed in the name of suppression of domestic violence. He claimed that the bill was tacitly meant to denigrate the family system of Islamic society.

The JUI-F chief came down hard on the Awami National party-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said that mismanagement and corruption was at peak in the province. He said that no comparison could be drawn between the present provincial government and that of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, as the latter had ensured efficient and honest administration in the province.

Criticising the federal government for stopping work on Lowari Tunnel project, he termed it a sheer injustice with people of Chitral. He claimed that the PPP-led government was busy in ‘buying’ members of parliament through gratifications.

Other JUI-F leaders, including Gul Nasib Khan, Akram Khan Durrani, Jalil Jan and district amir Maulana Abdur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.