Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday rejected the results of the February 8 elections, and asked his workers to be ready for peaceful protests across the country.

“The Parliament has lost its importance and democracy is losing its case. It looks like the decisions will now be taken on the streets and not Parliament,” he said.

Rejecting the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) statement in which it declared the polls free and fair, the JUI-F chief said the rigging witnessed during these polls was unprecedented.

He declined Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) offer to join the government coalition, instead invited him to sit with the JUI-F in the opposition.

To a question, Fazl said the JUI-F would play its parliamentary role but would join assemblies with reservations.

He said the JUI-F wanted an assembly that was truly represented by the people, “without the intervention from the establishment”.

Fazl claimed his party was defeated through “unprecedented poll-rigging.”

“Our fault is that we played our role in mending the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and spoke up against Israeli atrocities in Gaza and supported Hamas, which is not acceptable to the US.”

He said if the establishment believed the elections were free and fair, then that means the army’s May 9 statement has been buried.