PM-CJP meeting should not be made controversial: Fazl

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday expressed dismay at the efforts to make controversial the recent meeting of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi with Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar. "We should expect positive results from the meeting of elders," he said while talking to the media at the party secretariat, located on the Ring Road in Peshawar.

The JUI-F chief said the meeting should prove fruitful to dispel the negative impression created between the institutions and normalise the situation. The Maulana said the empowering the provinces through the 18 Constitutional Amendment was a national demand. "The impediments to implementation should be removed through legal ways," he said while elaborating on his statement.

The JUI-F chief said he was against the concept of diluting the powers of the provinces. "The devolved powers must be retained instead," he added.

About the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Maulana said he had a meeting with the members of the Fata Supreme Council. "The committee members renewed the demand to call ameeting of the Apex Committee at the federal level for establishment of peace in the tribal region. They called for evolving a strategy for that," said the JUI-F chief.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said an annual development package should be provided in the light of the rehabilitation and uplift process as announced earlier. The JUI-F chief said the Fata Supreme Council also called for tracing the missing persons and ending the unnecessary checkposts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.