• JUI-F chief says current the government extremely fragile. 
• Seeks re-election saying that he doesn’t accept 2024 polls.
• “I will become the PM or president if people vote for me.”

MULTAN: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday denied being offered the prime minister’s post, saying that he would become the premier with the votes of the people if he ever does.

“I will become the prime minister or president if the people vote for me,” Fazl said while speaking to journalists in Multan, adding that he was never presented with such an offer.

He wondered who would give him an offer to take the top slot.

Fazl — who was the head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of multi-party alliance formed against the PTI-led government — said that the country would constantly move towards “slavery’ if the nation didn’t protect the votes.

He said that the current government was extremely fragile as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was at the government benches but was not a part of the federal cabinet.

“The government will be in a problem the day the PPP has an issue,” the veteran politician said. “I believe that there is no government.”

Fazl further said that his party believed in democracy and sought the rule of law and the Constitution.

He said that he doesn’t have any personal enmity with the Imran Khan-founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which came into power after the 2018 general election.

“We do not do the politics of favouritism. If it were true, we would have been a part of the government,” he added.

Continuing his criticism of the 2024 general election, Fazl said that the JUI-F started the campaign against the “rigged” polls even before the PTI.

“We do not accept such elections,” he said, calling for a new election process.

The JUI-F chief also expressed solidarity with the farmers who suffered losses due to the recent wheat import by the government.

Moving on to the law-and-order situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Fazl claimed: “Muzaffarabad is slipping out of [Pakistan’s] hands in the quest for Srinagar.”

He also lamented deteriorating ties with Afghanistan in the light of protests on the Pakistan-Afghan trade routes.

Speaking about negotiations with the PTI, the JUI-F chief said that he would encourage an environment for talks.