Establishment should not play a role in polls: Fazl

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman told a party public gathering in Karachi on Friday that the establishment should stay out of politics “and then let’s see who wins in the next general elections”.
“Why are institutions not accepting that they have failed? The nation is still a beggar and the institutions should accept their failure. US supremacy in Pakistani foreign policy is not acceptable. Implementation of Sharia through guns is not the right way,” Fazl told thousands of supporters at the public meeting.
He said if there was independent foreign policy in Pakistan, the country would not be facing the current situation it was in. He said Pakistan had incurred losses of $70 billion dollars in the war on terror but had only received $4 billion in aid. “No ruler has the right to commit via verbal agreement to any other country,” said Fazl, referring to the alleged agreements made with the US by former president Pervez Musharraf.
The JUI-F chief said if a change could be brought in Egypt, it could be brought in Pakistan too. Pakistan had rendered sacrifices but received a bad name in the response and that there was a need to build confidence in the nation, he added.
Fazl said his party was against the implementation of Sharia by use of force. He said the recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) were not being implemented. “The religious factions are being push to war. Those who are getting an education in madrassas are not extremists but liberals. We are not the enemy of negotiations but it should be done on an equal basis,” he said, adding that there should be not be a relationship of master and slave between the US and Pakistan. He said those who were not implementing the CII’s recommendations were bigger terrorists than militants.
The JUI-F had arranged a large politico-religious rally entitled ‘Islam Zindabad’ at Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum in Karachi, attended by hundreds of thousands of people from across the province, possibly exceeding the number of participants at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)’s public meeting at the same venue.
The format and appearance of the public meeting closely resembled that of the PTI’s, with a similar stage and decoration but without chairs. All JUI-F leaders sat on the stage without chairs.