Fixing economy, not elections, should be Pakistan's priority: Maulana Fazlur Rehman

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said Pakistan’s priority should be to fix the economy and not elections. Pakistan’s National Assembly was dissolved in August and the country has been under a caretaker government since. Elections are slated for January next year, but the country continues to reel through an economic crisis that has made the common man struggle to put food on the table. Rehman, while addressing a presser on Sunday evening, opined it was more important to address the economy to save the country from crisis. He added that all members of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) were always ready for elections. While making it clear that his party has been fighting for election for three-and-half years, the Maulana warned that an unmitigated economic crisis jeopardises the independent existence of a country. Besides the economy, he also referred to the harsh winters in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in January and said that it would be very difficult to hold elections in such conditions. Rehman launched a scathing attack on the PTI government under former PM Imran Khan. He said that Khan’s government was responsible for the sorry state of the economy. He claimed that the PTI government reduced Pakistan’s foreign exchange to just $2 billion, and the PDM government raised it to $11 billion in the one-and-half years of its reign. Rehman also said that former PM and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who’s expected to return home later this month, should be warmly welcomed by all.