SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said that his party was fully active and ready to bring down the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

“We have already mobilised our workers by holding 10 “million marches” in the country and are planning a decisive one, towards Islamabad, after which the PTI government will not survive,” he said while speaking to the media at the residence of a senior party colleague, Hafiz Rab Nawaz Chachar, in Jam Sawaro Chachar village of Kandhkot-Kashmore district.

The Maulana observed that the PTI government had miserably failed to work on its manifesto and fulfil any one of the promises it had made with the masses. He said the country’s economy had nosedived and the poor masses were cursing the ruling clique over unbridled inflation, price hike, unemployment and unfair demolition of their houses and workplaces. He wondered that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), both claiming to be the major political parties of the country, were indifferent to the situation and appeared not ready to oust this inept government. The JUI-F was practically playing the role of opposition, he remarked.

The JUI-F chief also criticised the government’s alleged moves to abrogate the 18th Constitutional Amendment and warned that such an act would tantamount to “treason” as it ensured the country’s integrity. However, he added, some provisions or clauses of the amendment could be reviewed and changed with a consensus of the parliamentary parties.

“My party alone has been running a mass contact campaign to get people rid of the government,” he said, pointing out that the country was today facing an economic crisis due to an all time high volume of foreign loans which were constantly increasing.

Maulana Rehman claimed that the national economy started dwindling after PTI came to powers and Imran Khan become the prime minister.

Commenting on National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references, Maulana Rehman said the ongoing process of accountability was discriminatory against political forces and seemed to be motivated by inclination to victimise them.

Regarding military courts, the JUI-F chief said his party had not supported setting up of such courts nor would it endorse an extension.

When asked about his views on Pakistan-India tension, the Maulana said that [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi was creating a war-like situation to gain political mileage in his country and voters’ support for his party in the upcoming general elections there. “But Imran Khan is using the situation to gain sympathies of countrymen,” he added.

He said the PTI government was responsible for all ills and once it was ousted, all problems would stand solved. “It will not able to survive the day our million march will enter Islamabad,” he said.

“I tell the establishment through the media to stop supporting Imran Khan. We don’t want the country’s institutions to earn a bad name,” he remarked. Other JUI-F leaders including Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Hafiz Rab Nawaz Chachar, Maulana Shamsuddin Bheri, Maulana Jamaluddin Ogahi and Maulana Mohammad Ibrahim Khaki were also present.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2019