ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman, Thursday, warned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that “hidden elements” will force them to lock horns as a result both the parties will fail to focus on the governance issues but will utilise their energies in blackmailing each other.
Addressing his party workers here he also accused the establishment of involvement in rigging the February 8, 2024 elections like the 2018 polls and announced that his party will commence a movement against the alleged rigging.
"The rigging in these elections has put 2018's rigging to shame," and added that a "mockery has been made of the public mandate". Maulana said that following the 2018 elections, it was considered that the relevant authorities will conduct free and fair elections in 2024 but once again it just remained the dreams and wishes of the people.
He added that his party led from the front for the supremacy of the constitution and promotion of democracy in the country but this time around it was also crushed. The concern is that if one election after another is controversial, it will make the parliament worthless as the verdict of the people is not accepted. The JUI chief said that parliament must be free of any interference and his party will continue resisting all such forces.
Parliament is called the supreme institution but when the establishment interferes and chooses the representatives of their own will, then they will not be recognised as the true representatives of the people. He said that the people would raise their fingers against everybody elevated to the parliament through such an election process blaming the institutions for sending them to the elected bodies.
He stressed that the recently held elections in the country were the most rigged in the country’s history, saying that the establishment has broken the record of the past 75 years of corrupt practices in the 2024 polls.
He said that respect is not associated with certain uniforms but character earns respect. He deplored that the constitution has been made worthless and how the authorities will respond to the questions globally raised on the election outcome.
He said that as per the constitution of the country, sovereignty belongs to Allah and the elected representatives of the people and country will use this authority in accordance with the guidelines of Allah, strangely in Pakistan, the parliament is not sovereign but the public servants are. Maulana said that under such a situation his party is not in a position to go with this system.
Talking about the upcoming coalition government of PML-N and PPP, he said that the leadership of both the parties are JUI’s friends, saying his party workers were on the roads and streets after 2018 elections, while the leaders of these parties were sitting beside JUI leadership on the container, but JUI leaders never complained them for not bringing their workers in the protest.
He questioned the leadership of PML-N and PPP if the outcome of the 2018 election was not acceptable to them so why the result of the 2024 elections are acceptable to them.
The JUI chief slamming Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), accused them of hypocrisy for alleging rigging after benefiting from it in 2018. "When you were forming a government in 2018, there was no talk of rigging. But now, when you find yourselves on the opposite end, suddenly you see rigging," Fazl remarked. He added that PTI has serious reservations about the 2024 election result and no objections to the 2018 election result, this is simply hypocrisy.
Regarding his party's role in Parliament, the JUI-F chief asserted that their true strength lay in street protests rather than legislative chambers. He also criticised the growing influence of the military in political affairs.
"The rigging in these elections has put 2018's rigging to shame," said the JUI-F leader and added that a "mockery has been made of the public mandate."
He said that JUI had rejected the election results in 2018 and is rejecting the results of the recently held elections as it has compromised the importance of the parliament.
The JUI chief said that he was not criticising the armed forces of the country but those elements of the defence forces ignoring their prime duties and becoming political forces.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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