Daily Times

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl ur Rehman Tuesday said that the coalition government would move towards elections only after introducing electoral reforms in some areas. “The election process will now be finalised through mutual consultation, Fazl said in an interview with BBC Urdu, declining to comment on the duration of electoral reforms.

Regarding speculations over immediate elections, the JUI-F chief further added that only one and a half years are left and the coalition government cannot expand its tenure beyond this period.

“We have just stepped out of murky waters, so there is no point going back therein”, he said in an apparent reference to the political crises the country had been facing for the last few months. Fazl asserted that the country’s biggest problem at the moment is the economic crisis which needs to be fixed.

“Former prime minister Imran Khan has destroyed all the institutions during his four-year tenure and now the only question that lies ahead of us is whether we [the coalition government] could bring the country back on track and how long will it take,” he maintained. Speaking about the appointment of the new chief of army staff after General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure expires in September 2022, Fazl said: “I am not in the favour of discussing matters related to the appointment of the chief of army staff in political gatherings.”

The chief of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – a multiparty alliance that led the movement against Imran Khan’s ouster – maintained that the military has its own system and the chief of army staff holds an important position. He further added that it depends on the government whether it wants to extend the tenure or appoint somebody else. “The people of Pakistan should seriously consider that matters related to the appointment of the army chief should not be discussed in political rallies”, he added, as he accused Imran Khan of trying to divide the establishment. “If there is any division in the civilian institutions then redressal is possible; however, if there is division in the defence institutions or if civil institutions are turned against the national security institutions, then the whole country pays the price,” he asserted.