War of words between JUI-F and JI heats up

UPPER DIR: A statement by Gul Naseeb, the provincial general secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), has fuelled differences between the two major component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).

Maulana Gul Naseeb, in his speech at a convention of the Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (MQM) councillors, said that joining hands against the JI’s “tyranny” in the Upper Dir district was a “jihad” as the JI-backed former district nazim had subjected the people of the district to the worst kind of tyranny.

The JI is furious over JUI-F’s support for the MQM candidate because it is now in a weak position for the third phase of local body elections in the district. Maulana Gul Naseeb further angered JI local leaders because he also flayed the JI candidate and praised Najmuddin Khan, an MQM candidate, for his “broad-mindedness” and “accommodating attitude”. The JI local leaders alleged that JUI-F leaders had ‘sold their councillors’ to the MQM, adding that it was Naseeb’s incompetence and greed to form an alliance with the Awam Dost group as jihad, which clearly showed his deviation from principles and ideology. More significantly and surprisingly, Naseeb was accused of doing all this on the behest of the federal government, to create fissures in the MMA, which has irked JUI-F leaders. Ahmad Yousafzai, the JUI-F spokesman, humiliated the JI by saying that its chief, Qazi Hussain, could not win his NA seat without the JUI-F’s support. He said the JUI-F joined hands with MQM on the basis of principles and could not even consider selling its councillors. He said JUI had vowed to eliminate the ‘politics of victimization’. zahid jan

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