ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Friday expelled four of its members and cancelled their membership for deviating from party policy. The disciplinary committee of the party took action against Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, and Maulana Shujaul Mulk.

Differences were earlier reported between the senior leaders and party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman - also the head of the 11-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

Sherani had criticised his own party chief, saying that Fazl himself was a selected one, and added that the PDM was an "unnatural alliance" that would soon break up because it had no ideology.

According to a party's spokesperson, the four leaders were expelled from the party over violating party discipline, and he added that a notification in this regard would soon be issued by the head of the disciplinary committee, Abdul Qayyum.

"The committee members, Agha Ayub Shah, Maulana Abdul Wasi, Maulana Abdul Hakim Akbari, and others, unanimously took this decision," the spokesperson added.

"If any of the four leaders clarify their case and apologise for what they have done, then the committee has the right to make a decision in that regard," he added.

On December 22, Sherani said the JUI-F always opposed any hereditary leadership in the party. "We are against the turning of the party into a hereditary party. That has always been opposed in the party institutions and now it is being opposed openly," he added.

Speaking about the PDM's anti-government campaign, Sherani called it an "unnatural alliance, which will soon break up because ... everyone [in the alliance] is struggling to come to power".

Each party in the opposition alliance, he added, had its own interests.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020