Opposition not to give right to ‘selected’ govt to legislate on sensitive issues: Fazlur Rehman

KARACHI: Reiterating his demand to hold early polls in the country immediately, the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday said that the opposition parties had decided not to give the right to 'selected' government to legislate on the country's sensitive affairs.

He was addressing a protest rally organised jointly by the nine-parties' alliance held outside the Election Commission of Pakistan's Sindh office in Karachi in the context of the foreign funding case against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Rehman also slammed the ECP for not taking any action in the foreign funding case involving the PTI for the past five years. "The ECP should immediately give a verdict in the foreign funding case, otherwise people would lose their confidence in the election conducting body," he said.

He said the opposition parties have formed the alliance to save the economy of the country and safeguard the rights of citizens. Criticizing the mishandling of the army chief's extension issue by the government, he said that performance of the government’s legal team in defending the COAS’s extension at the Supreme Court was disgraceful.

"The army is the country’s most sensitive institution and because of incumbent government’s incompetence, it was dishonored and discredited," he said. He said that the incumbent parliament was not capable of carrying out any legislation process. “The answer to all problems being faced by the country lies in end of the incumbent government and holding fresh general elections without any interference,” he said.

"All the opposition parties have agreed that the last year's general elections were fake and that a re-election should be held," he said.

Announcing to launch the Plan C of the ongoing protest against the government, the JUI-F chief said that component parties of the opposition had decided to organise divisional level protests and sits-in. He said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was being used against the politicians and the country’s economy is suffering due to the so-called accountability process. He also condemned the desecration of Holy Quran in Norway and demanded that the government take up the issue at the international level effectively.

JUI-F’s Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz’s Ali Akbar Gujjar, Awami National Party’s Shahi Syed, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Nazir Jan, National Party’s Ramzan Memon, Qaumi Watan Party’s Sardar Ahemd Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan’s Mustaqeem Noorani and Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith’s Maulana Afzal Sardar also spoke to the protesters.