JUI-F fights for rights, not power, says Fazl at Karachi power show

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman reiterated allegations of rigging the election results, saying his party was fighting for the rights of the people and the country’s sovereignty and not for power.

“We are loyal to Pakistan, but national loyalty has no value here,” Maulana Fazl said during a power show in Karachi on Thursday. “The issue is not limited to elections, you (institutions) will have to completely change yourself.”

He alleged that “manipulation of votes” and “selling out” of all legislatures “from the Sindh Assembly to the House of the President” took place in the 2024 national polls.

Pointing to the alleged manipulation of opinion polls, he criticized: “Democracy has been eliminated from the country.”

“The people at the helm have made Pakistan a slave to America,” he said, adding, “Pakistan is self-sufficient in terms of competent people and natural resources.”

The senior politician, who led a multi-party alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – that successfully ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government in 2022, said they were fighting for the country’s sovereignty.

He said a “drama” was being staged in the name of the 2024 general elections.

Fazl said his political rivals thought the JUI-F would not be able to protest election fraud “but our movement is not just for one day or one month.”

He also expressed concern over the increase in terror incidents and said Pakistan can only prosper if its rulers come to power through “the people’s struggle”.

He added that his party’s struggle was not aimed at gaining positions in parliaments or ministries, but “we are ready to fight for your rights as soldiers.”

The politician expressed hope that Pakistan will become a prosperous and developed country if the JUI-F comes to power through a public struggle.

Earlier this week, Fazl delivered an explosive speech on the floor of the National Assembly, in which he attacked the government, the results of the 2024 national elections, parliamentarians, the bureaucracy and the establishment on Monday.

He asked the top leaders of the ruling parties – Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari – to quit the government and join to go to the masses.

He added that if the people had voted for the PTI, it should have been able to rule.