PDM used JUI-F 'like a tissue paper', alleges Hafiz Hussain Ahmed

The Pakistan Democratic Movement used Maulana Fazlur Rehman's Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party like a “tissue paper”, former JUI-F leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed alleged Saturday.

Ahmed, while speaking to the media alongside Maulana Muhammad Sherani after inaugurating the JUI secretariat in Peshawar,  said that the PDM "is in tatters", referring to the war of words between PPP and PML-N that began with the issue of whether or not the position of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate should go to Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Speaking about the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Ahmed called on Fazlur Rehman to help unite the factions of the party under a single Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan banner and hold intraparty elections.

“Maulana Fazlur Rehman should immediately join JUI Pakistan,” said Ahmed.

Ahmed also claimed that JUI had tried stopping the Fazlur Rehman from taking part in the 2018 elections but the JUI-F chief decided to contest the elections on the advice of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

The former MNA alleged that Fazlur Rehman was "busy saving his “reputation”, adding that the recent politics has "harmed the ideological foundations" of the JUI.

Sherani and Ahmed were among four leaders expelled last year from JUI-F for going against the party's decisions.

Following a meeting of the JUI-F in Lahore, Maulana Sherani, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, and Maulana Shuja-ul-Mulk were expelled from the party, a party spokesperson had said at the time.

The spokesperson added that the statements and opinions of the expelled leaders will not be owned by the party, adding that they had been sent copies of the decision.

The development came after Maulana Sherani earlier said that the PDM has been set up for "personal gains," adding that Maulana Fazlur Rehman is himself "selected."

Sherani separates JUI-Pakistan from JUI-F

Following the expulsion, senior politician Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani had announced the separation of JUI-Pakistan from Maulana Fazlur Rehman's JUI-F.

"We have inherited the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan party from great leaders," said Maulana Sherani, a former chairperson of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), in a press conference in the federal capital.

"Fazlur Rehman formed his group called the JUI-F," he said, clarifying that neither he nor his followers were ever a part of the JUI-F or the faction created by Fazlur Rehman, who now also leads the Opposition parties' anti-government coalition PDM banner.

"We have always been and will always remain members in accordance with the JUI's constitution," Sherani insisted.