PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has alleged that Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was involved in corruption and had nothing to do with Islam.
“Maulana’s (Fazl) politics is based on corruption and plunder and he is not interested in Islam,” he said in a handout issued here on Sunday.
The chief minister said Maulana sahib should tell the nation how he had amassed wealth, including property and vehicles.
He said JUI-F could never come to power and had missed the bus. “People of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are politically mature and they have understood intentions of the Maulana,” he said.
Interestingly, Mr Khattak recently visited JUI-F central headquarters in Peshawar and sought Mr Fazl’s role in restoration of peace in the province and adjoining tribal areas.
Strongly reacting to the chief minister’s statement, Jan Achakzai, spokesman for Mr Fazl, rejected Mr Khattak’s allegations and said he (Khattak) was paving way for the governor’s rule in the province by creating governance crisis.In a statement, Mr Jan said after Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak, the KP chief minister was waiting for Peshawar prison break and that would pave the way for the imposition of the governor’s rule in the province under Article 245 of the Constitution.He said only the provincial government would be to blame in case its bad governance led to imposition of the governor’s rule in the province.
“A remote-controlled chief minister can’t bring peace to KP. It is a government of excuses, scapegoats and whining,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister said the proposed local government system would be approved by the provincial assembly by the last week of August, while the local body elections would be held in October to transfer power to grassroots levels.
According to a handout issued here, Mr Khattak said this after holding a meeting with Asif Luqman Qazi, member of Central Executive Committee of Jamaat-i-Islami, a collation partner of PTI in the province.
Mr Qazi assured the chief minister of his party’s support for Dr Imran Khattak, PTI candidate for NA-5, Nowshera by-election.
Dr Imran is the son-in-law of Pervez Khattak, who had vacated the NA-5 seat after decided to keep the provincial assembly seat he had also secured in the May 11 elections.
The chief minister said PTI would show better results in the Aug 22 by-elections in the province with the support of coalition partners.
He said the PTI’s opponents were so baffled by its victory that they were forming an opposition alliance but he was confident that the people would vote for PTI in the same manner they had voted in the May 11 elections.
Mr Khattak said his government would set up an independent accountability commission in the province to hold looters of public money accountable.
He said the people had sent them applications against many former ministers and government officials to the government and all those cases would be dealt with by the proposed commission. The chief minister said the three days of Eid were spent peacefully in the province and its credit went to the provincial government.
He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa faced a difficult situation but the government was striving to bring stability and peace to it.
Mr Khattak said an intelligence agency would be formed in the province to prevent incidents like DI Khan jailbreak, while the government would continue with other efforts for peace like dialogue with the consent of the federal government.