JUI-F wants opposition parties to unite for polls

PESHAWAR: Considering early elections a panacea for all problems faced by the country, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has urged all opposition parties to join hands to work out a plan for polls and pressure the government accordingly.

“We think free, fair and transparent election at the earliest is the solution to all the problems. It should be done in a legal and constitutional way. We would never support any extra-constitutional step for change,” said Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the JUI-F central secretary general, while addressing a hurriedly called press conference here on Monday evening.

The JUI-F wants to celebrate 2012 as the year of election, but for the purpose all the opposition parties would have to unite and work out a unanimous solution with regard to the month and date for the elections, he said, adding that the JUI-F had contacted other opposition parties, mainly the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, for this purpose.

The Maulana said the government had failed on all fronts. “Robberies are taking place on national highways, law and order situation is presenting the worst picture in the country’s history, the economic situation has worsened and corruption has broken all records,” the JUI-F leader said. “One of the main reasons of the challenges facing the country is the support to the US-led alliance in the so-called war against terror. Even now there is time for the rulers to take the right decisions, otherwise it would become difficult for them to present the next budget,” he stressed. Ghafoor Haideri was in the provincial capital to condole the death of the sister-in-law of Abdul Jalil Jan, provincial secretary information of JUI-F who was present at the news conference. Ghafoor Haideri said the JUI-F had supported the government in the All Parties Conference convened by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, but the decisions taken in that conference for national security and sovereignty haven’t been implemented. He said the government made a welcome decision after the attack on check-posts in Mohmand Agency by cutting off supply line to the Nato troops in Afghanistan. The government is still sticking to that decision, he said, adding that the JUI-F would never allow resumption of the supplies. “We can even burn the Nato containers if the government dared to resume the Nato supplies,” he declared.