PESHAWAR: Calling the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) a group of anarchists, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday said the ruling coalition in the centre would contest the upcoming by-elections from a joint platform to defeat former prime minister Imran Khan’s party.

Addressing a news conference at the party’s provincial secretariat here on Friday, Mr Fazl, who also heads the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), said judges, generals and senior bureaucrats should join mainstream politics instead of using their respective national institutions for ‘political gains’.

“If you [judges, generals and bureaucrats] are interested in politics, then do not malign your institutions and instead formally join politics,” he said.

On the occasion, PTI leader and former provincial minister Iftikhar Khan Mohmand along with his supporters announced the joining of the JUI-F.

PDM chief says ruling coalition to contest by-polls from joint platform, terms PTI a group of anarchists

The JUI-F chief said allied parties of the PDM and other coalition partners would contest the upcoming by elections from a joint platform, which would allow them to wipe out the ‘fascist’ group by ballot paper.

He said the speaker of the National Assembly had begun accepting letters of resignation submitted by the PTI MNAs and that the PDM and its allies would field joint candidates in those by-elections.

Mr Fazl urged party workers to fully support whichever candidates the PDM chose to contest by- elections.

He said all schools of thought, irrespective of their political ideologies, including nationalist, secular, liberal and religious groups, had a consensus about the elimination of the fascist group, PTI.

“Although we have political and ideological differences, we will fight against this menace,” he said.

The JUI-F leader said he had a lot of respect for state institutions but the judges should refrain from meddling in political affairs.

“For God’s sake, do not put your names in the list of CJPs Justice Munir and Justice Saqib Nisar,” he said.

Expressing serious reservations about the verdict of a three-member Supreme Court bench in the Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi case, he said a larger or full bench of the apex court should have heard the ‘historic’ case.

In a veiled reference to the chief justice of Pakistan, Mr Fazl said, “I think they did not trust other respectable judges and therefore, a full bench was not constituted and every case is referred to the same bench, which comprises three judges.

He said the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s meeting was called on the ‘very strange’ pretext that the judges were on leave.

The JUI-F leader said 25 MPAs of the Punjab Assembly were de-seated on the basis of a letter by the PTI chief but the bench chose to ignore a similar letter by PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

“How do they [courts] expect us [PDM] to trust them when they gave relief to one party and punished another on a similar legal matter,” he said.

Mr Fazl urged the Election Commission of Pakistan not to further delay the decision in foreign funding case against the PTI.

He said a Financial Times report had disclosed that the Abraj Group had donated $2 million to the PTI in the name of donations for charity work.

The JUI-F leader said the PTI had handed over Punjab to someone whom its chief and former prime minister Imran Khan had once called the province’s biggest thief.

He claimed that the coalition government in the centre would complete its term and general elections would be held on time.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2022