KARACHI: While terming the recent campaign against the prime minister an Indian and American conspiracy against CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) project, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F Maulana Fazulur Rehman has advised PM Nawaz Sharif to remain steadfast against this conspiracy.
“We did pass a resolution in the previous assembly against the judicial murder of Bhutto. It shouldn’t be the case that in the coming days, we should be passing again a resolution over the judicial murder of another prime minister," said the JUI-F chief while speaking at a press conference here on Friday.
“A conspiracy has been launched to isolate the prime minister but we want to make it clear that democratic forces stand by parliament and democracy. However, the allegations against the family could only be responded by the affected party,” he said.
He said that food dish of “Panama” that was in the process of cooking would cool down soon. He said that no conspiracy would be allowed to succeed against the country, democracy, and parliament. “The present campaign is the third phase of the sit-ins of 2014. It has no relation to the public,” he said.
The JUI-F chief said that a crisis-like situation had been created in the country as part of a conspiracy to fail the CPEC project to paralyze Pakistan economically. “This is an American and Indian plot as they want to politically destabilize Pakistan and later on sabotage the CPEC,” he said.
“We should analyse the entire situation and its repercussions with broadening of vision and open heartedness instead of just keeping in view the proceedings of the judiciary and the JIT,” he said.
He said that the present plot was in continuance of the plots earlier hatched by the forces who wanted to weaken the democracy and parliament. “When the CPEC project was going to be launched in 2014, a mess was created in Islamabad as abusive language was used against parliament and the institutions and later on they walked out out the assemblies after resigning. In our viewpoint, these people had resigned and their membership of the assembly as per the law and Constitution is valid only because of a ruling of the speaker,” he said.
He said that those who had done politics on the basis of sit-ins had disgraced all. “Certain forces don’t want to see Pakistan getting strengthened economically as the present conspiracy is also part of it. So the PM should remain steadfast against this. People and all democratic forces stand along with him,” he said.
Maulana Rehman said that nations had to pass through such times and weakness should not be shown while facing them. “The People's Party should tell me whether or not Imran Khan had levelled so many allegations against Asif Ali Zardari. Now today if the two stand with each other, then it means either the People's Party accepted the allegations of Imran Khan or Imran Khan withdrew his allegations,” he said.
“We informed parliament in 2014 that these sit-ins and other conspiracies would linger on in different phases but at that time we didn’t know that the judiciary would also be used for the same cause,” he said.
He said that cases being talked about in the present day were the same old cases on which institutions had ruled while the accused persons had faced cases lodged by these institutions. “We today stand with security and bright future of the country as nobody would be allowed to sabotage the entire system and national solidarity,” he said.
Responding a question regarding in-house change in parliament, the JUI-F chief himself raised a question as to why in-house change should be brought about and why the PM should resign. “When we say it is a conspiracy, then why we should not fight against this conspiracy,” he said.
He said this notion was also correct that certain political forces were part of the present campaign keeping in view the forthcoming elections of the Senate of Pakistan. “The People's Party which is today talking about the resignation of Nawaz Sharif should inform about its sentiments regarding the resignation of Yousuf Raza Gilani. Whether or not they view that decision as correct,” he said.
He said that no more mistakes should be made or any further destabilization should take place given the problems faced by the country in the present day. “When Imran Khan and his associates were doing their campaign yesterday against the CPEC, then at that time Khursheed Shah stood by the prime minister for the survival of democracy. Shah sahib should inform whether his viewpoint was correct at that time or it is correct today,” he said.
He said that the army was the guarantor of the CPEC project but the army would only be able to discharge its duties in this regard when there would be political stability in the country.
To a question, he said that it was not the task of the judiciary rather of the administration to constitute a Joint Investigation Team but here a JIT had been constituted. “The affected party could only inform whether the composition and report of the JIT is correct or wrong as the same has not just raised objections but also termed it as a trash paper,” he said.
“We hear conversation regarding the judicial martial law as in such a situation what should we understand as who has been doing such a conspiracy,” said Maulana Fazl.
He advised the Pakistan People's Party and the MQM to analyze the situation as they should not give so much strength to an undemocratic person like Imran Khan enabling him to launch on attack on them as well in future.
He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had destroyed the institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Monitoring Desk adds: Maulana Fazlur Rehman lamented that Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah was sitting next to the same elements against whom he sided with the government. "Does Imran Khan consider Asif Zardari less corrupt than Nawaz Shairf," he asked.
He declined to comment on the Joint Investigation Team’s report, saying he sees the situation with a broader perspective keeping in view country's economic future. "We paved the way for Pakistan's economic prosperity by foiling sit-ins," he said referring to 2014 protests of PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
