Maulana Fazl says JUI-F will back no-confidence motion if tabled

Islamabad: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Monday that his party would support a no-confidence motion against the federal government if one was tabled in the National Assembly, but added that no such move was currently under consideration.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Fazl said the opposition was not in a position to bring a no-confidence motion. However, he warned that the ruling coalition would become a minority government if the Pakistan Peoples Party withdrew its support. "A government can neither be formed nor sustained without JUI-F's support," he said, according to Geo News.

Fazl called for an in-camera session of Parliament House to brief the nation on the country's situation, saying closed-door meetings of parliamentary leaders served no purpose. He said the nation was being kept unaware of the entire situation and that problems should be brought before parliament while government members remained silent.

The JUI-F chief said the government's writ was absent in two provinces. Street crime was rampant in Sindh and banks were being looted in broad daylight in Balochistan, he said, adding that no system was capable of protecting banks or citizens.

Fazl also said a JUI-F senator, Abdul Shakoor Khan, was stopped at the airport the previous day and prevented from travelling to China. Ministers in his province were being stopped on roads, he said, and Islamabad had filled with containers when some parties announced protests.

On the economy, Fazl said the country was under increasing debt pressure and inflation had risen sharply, leaving the public without remedy. "The country is in deep trouble: we are sitting on a powder keg," he said, adding that parliamentary governance was not being allowed to stabilise.

Fazl said JUI-F had consistently raised the issue of provincial rights, that provinces' resources belonged to their people, and that his party would fight for those rights through constitutional means. Dunya News, which also carried the statement, described it as explosive and said it had shaken Pakistan's political situation.