PESHAWAR  -  Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday claimed that the system would collapse as the country’s establishment wants government of their choice.

“Establishment wants assemblies and people of their choice,” Fazl asserted while addressing a press conference alongside other party leaders in Peshawar on Tuesday. “We received information before the elections that it has been decided to reduce the JUI-F’s inclusion [in the assemblies]. Different styles of rigging occurred in every polling station during the polls.” 

He went on to say, “If they think there was no rigging in the polls, then the May 9 narrative is apparently buried. They cannot run the country and this system will collapse. Those who are sticking to the system will be crying in the coming days,” Fazl said.

The JIU-F leader said that rigging was done in 2024 general polls on the pattern of 2018 elections. He was of the view that a public representative should not be a representative of the establishment. He, however, rejected any threat to the continuity of the country’s parliamentary system. Without naming PTI founder Imran Khan who wrote a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to force Islamabad for an election audit, Fazl also asked political stakeholders to refrain from inviting foreign institutions to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

He signalled that JUI-F has always kept the doors open for holding dialogues if any party was serious about addressing its reservations. Fazl said that his party had also given respect to its arch-rival PTI’s delegation as per political traditions.

Fazl also criticised the PTI founder’s arrest. He said that he had never felt happiness over any politician’s detention. The JUI-F supremo announced that his party will stay away from the presidential elections, as well as forthcoming polls for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister, and the opposition leader. He reiterated that the JUI-F — the party which was a strong political ally of the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party in the previous government — would not be part of any government in the Centre and provinces. To a question, he replied that they do not consider governorship as a political portfolio, however, his party has not mulled over accepting such an offer so far.