ISLAMABAD: Soon after the sacking of Azam Khan Swati, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Tuesday stepped out of the ruling coalition in protest against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s decision to fire the party’s senator from the federal cabinet without taking the leadership into confidence.
Announcing the decision taken in a closed-door emergency meeting of the top party brass, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman said two other ministers of his party had also resigned in protest but he would continue to hold the chairmanship of the parliament’s Kashmir committee and Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani would also not resign as chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).
Talking to reporters after chairing the party meeting, Fazl said the government had withdrawn from its policy of reconciliation therefore “we part ways with it as coalition partner”. He emphasised that the “JUI-F’s decision is final” and the party would not reverse it.
After the announcement, President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called Fazl but he refused to talk to them even when a presidential emissary, Qayyum Soomro, rushed to convince him to take their calls.
Fazl said the situation had reached a point of no return as despite the JUI-F’s efforts to continue working with the PPP, the ruling party’s unilateral decisions on major issues and its inaction on Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s public ridicule of the blasphemy law was highly offensive and intolerable.
“We were part of the coalition government per an agreement. Though we were disappointed with the government’s performance for long, particularly with respect of non-implementation of Islamic laws and its policy against terrorism but President Zardari kept on asking us that reconciliation was needed in the country,” he said. Criticising the prime minister’s step of sacking Swati, Fazl said he had raised the Haj corruption issue in the cabinet and had asked Gilani to take notice.
“He also wrote letters to the prime minister pointing out corruption in Haj affairs but the government paid no heed to those letters. On the Supreme Court’s suo motu notice on Haj corruption, Swati decided to assist the SC and the prime minister sacked him for this crime,” he said, adding that it was unilateral decision of the government.
He also announced that two federal ministers belonging to the JUI-F – Rehmatullah Kakar and Attaur Rehman were immediately resigning from their portfolios. Asked about having the chairmanship of parliamentary Kashmir committee, Fazl said it was related to parliament and not to the government. “I will quit from my position if the committee members wish me to,” he added. He said the JUI-F would vote against the reformed GST in the National Assembly.
