‘Fake’ parliament lacks mandate for constitutional amendment: Fazal Re-elected as JUI-F chief unopposed for five-year term

PESHAWAR: After being re-elected as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) chief for five years, Maulana Fazal Rehman has slammed the incumbent government, saying that the “fake parliament” lacks a real mandate for a major constitutional amendment. “We want a fresh [general] election,” Fazal said while addressing a press conference after the conclusion of the party’s intra-party poll in Peshawar on Sunday. “This parliament does not deserve this huge constitutional amendment.” Detailing ongoing consultations with the PPP and the major opposition party — PTI, he said that the JUI-F and the said parties would share their draft amendments. The cleric stressed that such amendments should be brought forward which provides relief to the masses and strengthen democracy without compromising the sovereignty of parliament. “Judicial reforms should not be individual-centric.” The politico, who led the previous multi-party alliance — Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — that successfully ousted former prime minister Imran Khan from office in April 2022, criticised the government for disallowing the Imran-founded party to hold public gatherings and called it an undemocratic step. He added that the PTI should be given permission to hold power shows. However, he slammed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s threatening tone and termed it a “childish attitude”. He was referring to Gandapur’s comment on recent clashes between PTI workers and the police during the Rawalpindi protest rally in which the KP chief executive threatened that his party would respond to every bullet, tear gas shell, and baton strike against its supporters., the cleric strongly condemned the Israeli fierce attacks on Lebanon that saw the martyrdom of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. He said that Israel achieved the second biggest target [after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s martyrdom] to hit the Palestinian movement. He added that despite Nasrallah’s martyrdom, “Jihad will be continued till the independence of Al-Aqsa Mosque.” warned that the fire that erupted in Lebanon by Israel could engulf the entire world. The politico urged the Arab countries to devise a combined defence system, otherwise, the flames of war would affect all of them. to his press conference, Fazal was re-elected unopposed as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief for a five-year tenure as the politico-religious party held its intra-party polls. Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was also elected unopposed for another term as the JUI-F secretary-general.