JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman slams Pakistan Army's role as political decision maker

The head of JUI-F, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has questioned the Pakistan Army’s role in the purported manipulation of the February 8 elections that installed the PML-N-led government in the Central and Punjab province, stating that the army cannot be respected as a political decision-maker.

Fazlur Rehman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur (JUI-F), told reporters on Wednesday that the Pakistani Army must adhere rigorously to its duty as the nation’s protector.

“The Army as a defender of Pakistan is respected, but not as a political decision-maker. I don’t accept the February 8 electoral mandate because of massive rigging. I hold those (military establishment) responsible who have done it, not those for whom (PML-N of Sharifs) it was done,” the cleric said.

Over the course of its more than 75-year history, the army has dominated Pakistan and had significant influence on security and foreign policy issues.

The JUI-F and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan’s party, have been particularly critical of the military establishment, accusing it of stealing their mandate to impose a coalition led by Shehbaz Sharif.

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Khan, who was sentenced to 31 years in three separate incidents and has been detained since August of last year, referred to election manipulation as the “mother of all rigging.”

In order to tie the provision of the IMF’s financial aid to Pakistan to the examination of the elections in February, he even made a call to the organization.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI-F, who overthrew Khan’s rule in April 2002 and served in the Shehbaz-led government for 16 months, has declared his intention to sit in the opposition in the current parliament.

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“The military establishment sabotages the electoral process and interferes in the democratic procedures. The resolutions of Corps Commanders’ Conference cannot deter criticism of it,” he said.

The Corps Commanders Conference refuted on Wednesday the claims of political meddling and manipulation of the February polls against the military forces.

Not sparing the Pakistani judiciary, Fazlur Rehman said: “How can this judicial system accept 100 cases in a week’s time against a person (Imran Khan) fallen out of favour of the military and decide in favour of another 100 against a person (Nawaz Sharif), who has won the favour of the Army?”

“Our judiciary now says former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was not given a fair trial 45 years after his hanging (at the behest of military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq) when all the judges died. Can he come back now?” he asked.

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday declared that the trial of Bhutto was unfair and lacked due process.

(With agency inputs)