Slamming the establishment’s alleged role in political affairs of the country, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) President Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday said the people will hold Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ‘selectors’ responsible for destroying Pakistan.
He said this while addressing a Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) rally in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held as part of its second phase of the anti-government campaign.
“Ahmadis are funding parties in Pakistan but the election commission is silent,” Fazl claimed, adding that his party would stage a rally in Karachi on January 21 against what he claimed the PTI government’s bid to recognise Israel.
In continuation of a series of protest against the government and a demand for its ouster, the 11-party opposition alliance has also announced to hold a protest in front of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on January 19.
“Why the army uses its influence for the formation of the governments in Pakistan,” Fazl questioned in his address. The ones who brought the incumbent government to power were equally responsible for the destruction of Pakistan, said the PDM chief, adding that those who were providing shelter and aid to this government would be held accountable by the people of the country. “Now the people wanted to take back their power of vote and give it to the rightful leadership,” he maintained.
Fazl said that some unseen forces in the country sought to seize the entire resources of the nation but PDM will never let it happen. “Now the entire nation has risen and we [PDM] have given them a voice,” he added.
He said that civilians had also sacrificed their lives alongside the armed forces for restoring peace in the tribal areas. “Despite their [armed forces] presence, there is unrest [in tribal areas]. If they cannot provide peace then why are they still present [in tribal areas]? The army should be brought back from civilian areas to the barracks,” he added.
The firebrand cleric urged the rally’s participants to get ready to march on Islamabad, saying that PDM was a movement and movements do not stop before achieving their desired results.
Fazl said that due to the efforts of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, China brought investment worth $70 billion, but that same friendly country was now annoyed with Pakistan owing to havoc this government had caused to the country’s economy.
“Even the Indian prime minister came to our country himself [during Nawaz’s tenure] and wanted to talk about trade between the two countries but the situation has completely changed today,” he added.
The JUI-F amir said that not even a single promise of Imran Khan has materialised since coming to power in 2018, and added that the entire nation was united against the government.
PML-N General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal, during his address, said that the Pashtuns had sacrificed the most in the fight against terrorism.
He said that when PML-N came into power, the country was facing power outages of over 13 hours a day, adding that 13,000 megawatts of electricity was made part of the system during his party’s government.
Imran Khan had even failed as a cricketer, claimed Iqbal. “It was Javed Miandad, Inzimamul Haq and Wasim Akram who won the World Cup for Pakistan, and not Imran,” he said.
