SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Secretary General MNA Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has termed the incumbent federal dispensation “puppets, whose strings are commanded by some others”.

Speaking to the media in Jacobabad on Saturday, the JUI-F leader remarked: “Both chhotay mian and Bibi are powerless”, and said those currently ruling over the country are products of ‘Form 47’ [or fake mandate].

No general election held in the country had been transparent, he said, adding that each of them, especially those held in 2013, 2018 and 2024, had been grossly rigged. “That’s why, the JUI-F has not accepted their results,” he said.

The incumbent rulers, he said went on to say, “have been brought to powers through connivance; they are showpieces as they are just without any powers or authority”.

He argued that they could not even clarify their own policies.

Maulana Haideri said that CPEC, a project with an investment of billions of dollars, was supposed to have been completed by now, but it was still stuck in Punjab and Sindh.

Welcoming the US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze all funds meant for foreign aid, the JUI-F leader said: “Our people’s blood was being shed in lieu of the aid … we don’t want a single dollar in such aid”. He was of the view that halting US aid to Pakistan would result in peace to prevail across this country.

Maulana Haideri was also critical of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) delegation’s meeting with the chief justice of Pakistan with the aim of getting the 26th Constitutional Amendment revoked, and said that the attempt tantamount to “parliament’s insult”.

He stressed that the parliament had done its job of legislation and the judiciary was supposed to take decisions as per the Constitution and laws.

Six canals issue

The JUI-F leader described the federal government’s plan to create six canals to be bed through the Indus River as “height of cruelty”, and wondered that such a plan was intended to be executed while Asif Ali Zardari was holding the slot of the country’s head of state.

He said these canals were bound render Sindh’s lands barren, and cause harm to the country.

Maulana Haideri was on a visit to Jacobabad to attend the Valima ceremony of Tariq Ahmed Mengal, who is son of JUI-F Saudi Arabia chapter leader Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mengal, in a local hotel.

Other JUI-F leaders Dr A.G. Ansari, Hafiz Mir Mohammad Banglani, Hafiz Rab Nawaz Chachar, Siraj Ahmed Dol and Maulana Nasrullah Ghanio were accompanying Maulana Haideri in the media talk.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2025