Zardari invites Fazl to Dec 27 event; Govt focuses on weakening JUI-F chief 

Former president Asif Ali Zardari contacted JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and personally invited him to attend the rally to be organised at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in connection with the martyrdom anniversary of former premier Benazir Bhutto, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday. 

During the telephonic conversation, the two sides also discussed the overall political situation in the country. The contact came amid media reports that there are some differences between the PPP and other PDM parties over the resignations issues.

Zardari phoned Fazl just hours after reports that a party delegation, not the JUI-F chief himself, would attend the December 27 event. It was PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who had invited the entire PDM leadership for attending the death anniversary of his mother.

Separately, 24NewsHD TV channel also reported that the government had devised a strategy to tackle the rival religio-political parties, which, sources said, was obviously focused on the JUI-F, as Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri and Tahir Ashrafi had been assigned with the task of contacting the religious circles.

On the other hand, the JUI-F leadership also is holding a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday for discussing the PDM-related affairs and the “media trial” of Fazl, who is also the opposition alliance’s president, as he hasn’t so far received the questionnaire issued by the NAB despite being shared with and spread through TV channels and newspapers.

As far as the government plans are concerned, the sources say Qadri – federal minister for religious affairs – will reach out to the custodians of different shrines and other leaders of the same school of thought.

Similarly, Ashrafi, who is a special representative to the prime minister on religious harmony, will contact madrasas as well as other religious scholars and leaders for the same purpose backing the government.

In this connection, the sources say discussions with other religious circles and parties is aimed at weakening the JUI-F’s position when it comes to the ongoing PDM movement.

Meanwhile, the central executive committee, provincial party heads and others leaders are among those attending the JUI-F meeting to be chaired by Fazl. They will deliberate upon the PDM’s performance so far, current political scenario and future course of action.

Also, the party will formulate a strategy to counter the media trial faced by Fazl given the fact that the NAB questionnaire has not be sent to him but being used on TV screen and in newspapers which the party believes is nothing but character assassination.

Earlier on Wednesday, Fazl had again vowed to cleanse Islamabad through an ocean of people and warned Prime Minister Imran Khan that he had no idea what he was going to face.

Addressing a protest rally in Mardan as part of the second phase of PDM movement, the JUI-F chief said Imran would face accountability at his hands. Those protecting the PTI government were saying that not to talk about them as the matter was between the opposition and Imran, he remarked.