ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the government “misused the Constitution” to impose governor’s rule and an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and disclosed that the cabinet overruled a deal he had brokered to call off the PTI’s march on Islamabad.
“The government has misused the Constitution. Here, just as the law is misused, the Constitution was misused,” Fazl said, arguing that power in the province had been transferred “by force” rather than by the will of voters. “I may have my reservations about the [KP] government, but this is not the way to enact change, by bringing about a revolution and upending everything. You must go to the people for that.”
‘The cabinet is not agreeing’
Fazl gave his account of October 11, the day the Centre imposed governor’s rule. He said PTI leaders had asked him to mediate, and that after talks with senior PML-N and PTI figures he met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who asked for the long march to be called off.
On the morning of October 11, he said, he was told his proposal was being discussed in the cabinet. “At 10:30am, I received a phone call from Ishaq Dar saying that the cabinet is not agreeing to this. And they are saying that governor’s rule must be imposed there at all costs,” Fazl said, referring to the deputy prime minister. “So I said that all the effort made since yesterday was being negated.”
He said the province now had “governor’s rule in half of the province, emergency in the other half”, a reference to the special emergency measures in 12 districts, and questioned the government’s claim to have restored order, pointing to Balochistan and the reported kidnapping of commissioners there. He also blamed Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for failing to protect the sanctity of the Constitution and Parliament.
‘Either with the state or with the TTP’
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary replied that governor’s rule would last only six months and that the emergency covered only districts hit by terrorism. “You have to be on one side, either remain with the state of Pakistan or be supportive of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said, accusing Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of using provincial resources to march on Islamabad and of having “even defended the terrorists”. The government has promised to end governor’s rule within six months.
Fazl called for a new Charter of Democracy to save the country from “unconstitutional” actions and possible violence, and said those questioning his patriotism should remember his party’s sacrifices against terrorism. “My party is a party of martyrs,” he said. “If the government is prepared for a confrontation, we are also ready to confront it.”
