The politically heavyweight Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced a grand protest on May 9, 2024. This protest is not to condemn the historically blackest incidents, witnessed on the same day the previous year; but to question the military establishment for its alleged role in making and breaking the governments in Pakistan and also to challenge the legitimacy of the government after the 2024 elections.
The JUIF chief announced a “Million March” in Karachi on May, 5, and then launched a grand protest in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Maulana earlier a hard-core ally of the PMLN’s former coalition government and the strongest opponent of PTI announced this in his first speech in the National Assembly. Questioning the legitimacy of former allies now in the federal government, he has advised to hand over the government to PTI and also warned everyone for not to interrupt him in his protests.
The temperature of Maulana was observed to be very high as he questioned, “Is this the people’s parliament or the one appointed by the military establishment?” Maulana also supported PTI for its demands to protest against the legitimacy of general elections 2024. Challenging the legitimacy of operations against terrorists, he said to stand against the governance system in Pakistan which to him is unacceptable.
He went on to say that democracy in Pakistan was weakened after politicians compromised with the military for personal gains and interests. He questioned when elections with the same ratio of seats for every political party were called as comprised in 2018 then how elections with the same ratio in 2024 could be termed legitimate? He alleged that this time it was historic as in this election assemblies were sold.
Importantly, JUIF is going to launch the said protest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where PTI is a ruling party and obviously it would be extending all possible support to Maulana to question the military establishment on the same day when previous year PTI’s leadership was held responsible for attacking military installations, burn military houses, disgrace pictures and monuments of the martyrs of the nation.
What Maulana is to gain now in a joint venture with PTI is best known to him. He has been a strongest opponent of PTI for which even today it is being questioned and is facing cases of anti-state activities and still is under trial. What sentiments PTI is having for the top military command and its attitude against the state institutions perhaps is something that looks hidden to Maulana now, but was not in past.
Maulana as the head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) criticized the then Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for not taking action against former prime minister Imran Khan. “Why there is no action being taken against the PTI chairman and his party regarding mega scandals? We are questioning the government. If action can be taken against a person who had been prime minister of the country three times, then why not against the PTI chairman,” he questioned this while addressing press in 2023. He said, “PTI mercilessly crushed the national economy.” “The incidents of attacks on May 9 should be strongly condemned. Such inflammatory incidents should not be allowed, and strong actions should be taken against those involved.” He said, “The PTI government wasted 70 billion US Dollars investment from China. The occupation of Kashmir was a result of the alliance between the PTI chairman and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The nation is still paying the price for this controversial decision.”
These are the few extracts of Maulana’s sentiments for the PTI in 2023 for which he is now advising the PMLN to transfer the government and then go into public. Maulana was never seen advising such to the coalition government under the umbrella of PDP. After the PDM’s government ended, Maulana disclosed, “The top military command including the former army chief Gen (Retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa orchestrated the downfall of the PTI’s Imran Khan led government in 2022. When the PPP was moving the no-confidence motion against the PTI, Mr. Bajwa and Faiz Hameed were in touch with us. They both asked all parties to bringing a vote of no-confidence motion.” Why Maulana didn’t see the role of the military establishment in politics when PDM was in government is a question which he can better explain.
On February 10, 2022, Imran Khan was ousted from power after losing confidence in the House. This motion was followed after days of intense political turmoil and was prompted by a Supreme Court’s ruling. This move marked Mr. Khan as the first Pakistani prime minister being removed after losing confidence. The confidence motion was executed under Article 95 of the Constitution of Pakistan and a total of 174 out of the 342 members in the parliament voted in support of this motion of the opposition-PDM.
Contrary to what Maulana said about the role of Mr. Bajwa and Faiz Hameed, Mr. Khan in May last year said against the PDM government, “I want to give a little background of how we reached here. There was a foreign conspiracy against Pakistan from the US. In this regime change, they used locals — the most corrupt people, who were ready to become part of any conspiracy to save their corruption.” Imran Khan in another statement said, “We held a peaceful protest on May 25 but they inflicted violence on us.
And if I had not called it off then the next day there really would’ve been discord and blood in the country.” Who is right among Maulana and Mr. Khan about the oust of the PTI government is up to both of them?
A question about the military establishment’s alleged role in making and breaking election is that how PTI on July 18, 2022 secured victory in about 16 seats out of the 20 that became vacant following the disqualification of PTI members who supported Hamza Shehbaz in a bid for the position of Punjab chief minister?
In October, Director General of the ISI, Lt General Naveed Anjum in a press conference with DG ISPR disclosed that in March 2022, General Bajwa was presented with an attractive proposal by the PTI government in power to extend his term. He said, “It was made in front of me. He rejected it because he wanted the institution to move forward from a controversial role to a constitutional role.” He went on to reveal that in March, there had been a lot of pressure, but both the institution and the army chief -Mr. Bajwa- made the decision to confine the military to its constitutionally defined role. Mr. Anjum defending the then army chief said, “If you see him as a traitor, then why do you meet him through the back door? Don’t meet quietly at night through the back door and express your unconstitutional wishes but call him a traitor in broad daylight. That’s a big contradiction between words and actions, the DG added.
However, on May 9, 2023, Imran was taken into custody by Rangers at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) regarding the Al Qadir Trust case. The PTI that has been time to time attacking police, lead to finally commit May 9 incidents. This day was marked as the blackest day of the history of Pakistan, as it witnessed attacks on the national buildings, military installations including GHQ, residence of the corps commander in Lahore -Jinnah House, and disgrace to the monuments of the martyrs of the nation. The Army said “We are well aware that behind it was orders, directives and complete pre-planning by some sinister party leadership.” The PDM backed Prime Minister said it was an enmity towards the country and its nation.
Now Maulana is all set to support PTI on May 9, 2024. This alliance is being questioned by the public like: is not Maulana’s announced venture in Peshawar a continuity of PTI’s narrative against state institutions including the military? Will this approach not throw the country into further crises specially when Pakistan is proving good on economic fronts? Is it a joint move of PTI and JUIF to bury the blackest incidents of May 9 when the writ of the state was blatantly challenged? Is Maulana in a move to bargain something new after losing in general elections? There are many other questions but Maulana can answer them better.
(Senior journalist Rana Kashif is the author of this piece)
