JUI-F in contact with religious parties to form alliance

• Fazl says he has ‘good’ relations with MMA’s component parties, including JI

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman has said that the Panama Papers issue had nothing to do with curbing corruption and termed it as a conspiracy aimed at creating political instability.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday at the residence of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) Secretary General Shah Owais Noorani, he maintained that earlier former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani were made the target.

“Today, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was being targeted,” the JUI-F chief pointed out. “This is not accountability and that it had some political agenda,” he said. He also described it as a move to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Fazl also maintained that India and the US had forged a nexus and their target was Pakistan and China. “We are in constant contact with other religious parties for forming an alliance as this was essential in view of the prevailing situation,” he pointed out.

In this regard, the JUI-F chief said that a committee had been formed under Senate Deputy Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for establishing contacts with the religious parties. He said that they had good relations with the component parties of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). “We have cordial relations even with Jamaat-e-Islami,” he said.

In the past, Pakistan was close to bankruptcy but today it was being considered internationally as economically strong, he said. “Pakistan is in a take off position economically.” In the past, four years no case of corruption had come to fore in the country, he pointed out. He stated that the government wanted to take the JIT report to the Supreme Court. “We expect justice from the court,” he said.

The JUI-F chief believed that some elements were active against democracy and that the anti-democracy forces should not be encouraged. He said that he respected opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah. However, he asked as to how he (Shah) can save democracy while in league with anti-democracy forces.

He said that the CPEC was a game-changer for the entire region. He said that the guarantee from the Pakistan Army for making the CPEC a success was very encouraging. He said that soon he would be meeting the parties that were included in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. He believed that the religious parties should unite as with unity they can expose conspiracies.

To a question, he said that they had also reservations on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and called for disbanding NAB created by General Pervez Musharraf. To another question, he maintained that he was not considering establishment a party at any cost in the current situation. “We must know that the establishment is a national institution and it had a role,” he said.