Naqvi tells Senate JUI-F has crossed a line over NA speech

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate on Thursday that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had "crossed a line", accusing its chief Maulana Fazal ur Rehman of making anti-state statements in the National Assembly a day earlier, Business Recorder reported.

According to the report, the session was presided over by Presiding Officer Shahadat Awan in the absence of Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani and Deputy Chairman Senate Syedaal Khan. Naqvi said the JUI-F chief's speech on Wednesday left him with no room to respect him.

"JUI-F has crossed a line: they would be handed a befitting response," the minister said.

Naqvi went on to say the state had been "like a mother" to the party for as long as it drew benefits from it, and that the position had changed. "They use Islam as business: they use religion in everything that benefits them," he said.

"Now they will not get money from the state, they will not get employment, they will not get the (electoral) tickets from the state," Naqvi told the house, according to Business Recorder. "If they cross a line: they will get a befitting reply in all the ways that matter."

The remarks drew a protest from JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza, who demanded that the minister stop targeting his party and its chief. Other opposition senators joined the protest.

"Kamran sahib you have to listen: when you criticise, have the courage to listen," Naqvi replied, and urged the protesting lawmakers to "have the courage to hear the reply".

Business Recorder reported that Naqvi referred to the JUI-F chief's speech delivered in the National Assembly earlier on Wednesday but did not set out which specific remarks he was objecting to. The account carried no response from Maulana Fazal ur Rehman or from the JUI-F, and did not reproduce the text of Wednesday's speech.

The exchange came in the upper house, where the interior minister was speaking during a sitting chaired by a presiding officer rather than the chairman or deputy chairman of the Senate.