Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has once again refused to follow the APDM decision to boycott elections. “APDM is a political grouping, formed to fight for the restoration of democracy in the country, and not an electoral alliance, so how could it decide about election boycott. It has no right or authority to make such a decision,” Fazl told a news conference here on Friday evening.He alleged that some APDM parties, which had no public following, had held Nawaz Sharif hostage, therefore the PML-N leader voted for election boycott. He said that only those parties, which are unable to find candidates to field in elections advocated poll boycott. Fazl said that there’s no rationale for boycotting polls after the president had hang up uniform and announced to lift emergency rule and withdraw the PCO. He said that the APDM wouldn’t be able to gather public support for poll boycott in current circumstances so it should review the decision. Fazl said that APDM had yet to contact him to press for election boycott. “They (APDM leaders) should come to us either to convince us or get convinced (by us),” he said.
JUI-F chief said that his party would take part in elections from the MMA platform even if Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chose to stay away from electoral process. He said that he and his party candidates had applied for MMAÂ’s election symbol, book. He said that top MMA leaders would meet at Qazi Hussain AhmedÂ’s house on Saturday to solve differences on different issues thus save the MMA from breakup. He said that he would try to convince MMA leaders not to boycott elections.
Fazl said that the deposed judges had taken oath under the PCO and they should be disliked like the incumbent PCO judges. “If a judge fights Musharraf, it doesn’t mean that we should embrace him. We should have one guiding principle on the judges’ issue,” he said. He said that his party wanted judiciary to be free and the incumbent was not free.
Contact with Bhutto: Fazl said that he was in contact with PPP Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto over telephone but had no immediate plans to see her. He said that he would allow JUI-F-PPP seat adjustments at local level but was opposed to an electoral alliance between the two.
Civilian president: JUI-F leader said that he had opposed Musharraf in the past and still had some constitutional reservations over his becoming a civilian president.