Peshawar:
The chief of Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, threatened to walk on Islamabad if tribal questions are not resolved, claiming that if his party has remained faithful to Pakistan and his Constitution , he will not accept “forced decisions”.
Addressing a tribal jirga in Peshawar on Monday, he called for confidence strengthening measures, urging the government to approach tribal grievances through Jirgas.
“If these jirgas do not solve the problems, we will walk on Islamabad,” he said.
“If we can walk for religious seminars, we can also walk for the tribal people. History will remember you as occupants and oppressors,” added the clerk-political.
He said he had always participated in tribal jirgas, including the merger of tribal areas administered by the Federal Government (FATA) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
He said that even if his party did not oppose the merger, he had always insisted that the decision should not have been taken without consulting the people of Fata.
“Before the merger, a Jirga had decided that the future of tribal areas should be left to the will of the people – that they wanted to continue under the settlement of border crimes (FCR), to become a separate province or integrates into a existing regulations.
A referendum was requested on the issue, he added.
He recalled that the state had promised peace in exchange for the merger, but today, neither security nor stability exist in KP and in tribal districts.
“If there was peace, dignity and honor of each individual would be safeguarded. If there were peace, human rights would not be raped. If there were peace, there would have a job, “he pointed out, pointing to the worsening of the situation of the law and the order.
The Clerk-Politician said that Islam was a religion of peace and that his party defends a peaceful system. “We are in Parliament, but the establishment of an Islamic system remains our firm request.”
“The Constitution obliges that no law contrary to Islam should be promulgated, but we see a democracy without implementation,” he said.
Fazl also asked who really confirmed the Constitution in the country. “When we talk about the Constitution and the rule of law, we are accused of having tried to break the country. The Constitution is a sacred contract.”
