JUI-F dares PM to apply Article 6 on Fazl

In a tit-for-tat response to the government, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Friday challenged Prime Minister Imran Khan to proceed with his "whimsical daydream" to apply Article 6 on party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Speaking on a point of order in National Assembly, Maulana Asadur Rehman, the son of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, dared the prime minister and his ministers to remain true to their statements of applying Article 6 on the JUI-F chief, without taking any U-turn, as what he said the "ruling elite" has a history of backtracking from their positions.

"Today, a prime minister [Imran Khan], who has virtually turned the country into an "occupied Pakistan", has given a statement, that he will take action against Maulana Fazlur Rehman under Article 6. Well, [we say] proceed," challenged the young cleric.

In the same breath, he continued that he welcomes the premier's statement and demand him through the floor of the House not to backtrack from his stance of trying Maulana Fazl under Article 6 this time around.

Asadur Rehman said that the language PM Khan used against state institutions during his visit to Iran and then the way he talked about the state institutions during his visit to the UN must also be clarified as we will not allow anyone to be treated as a sacred cow.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari seconded the young cleric, saying the prime minister must not give such "childish" statements, and instead show some spine to try those who have been convicted under Article 6.

In an obvious reference to Pervez Musharraf's treason case, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Khawaja Asif said that after failing to try those who needed to be a tried under Article 6, the prime minister must not say anything if there was nothing to say.

This prompted State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan to say that the statement of the prime minister must not be interpreted out of proportion, as he did not talk with reference to the sit-in of the JUI-F.

He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has been given a mandate for by the people, and no one will be allowed to disrupt peace under the pretext of political point scoring.

The state minister said that opposition parties have the right to bring "no confidence" motion against the government as per the constitution, but the state minister did say that the "JUI-F leader will have to explain as who asked him to stage the sit-in".

He said that all the political parties had rendered sacrifices for strengthening democracy and supremacy of the parliament and his party's government did not believe in registering political cases against opponents.