JUI-F not to take part in PM, president, speaker elections: Fazl

• Party lawmakers to abstain votes in president, prime minister polls.
• Fazl confirms "pleasant conversation" with multi-party delegation.
• Politico-religious party to sit in opposition to play parliamentary role.

Raising serious reservations over the 2024 election results, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced that his party would not participate in forthcoming elections for the top political slots — president, prime minister, and the National Assembly (NA) speaker.

The cleric, speaking to journalists in Islamabad on Thursday, said his politico-religious party would sit in the opposition and its lawmakers would abstain their votes during the upcoming electoral events in the assemblies concerned.

In response to a question regarding JUI-F’s strategy for a protest movement, he said: "Wait for it. We will represent the nation soon.".

“I haven’t met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz quaid Nawaz Sharif so far. A delegation arrived yesterday which comprises representatives of the PML-N, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP).”

“We had a pleasant conservation as we were already very frank with them,” the senior politician answered another question regarding dialogues with major parties that formed a strong coalition to rule the country.

However, he clarified, again, that the JUI-F would not take part in any affair of such a parliament that was not controlled by true representatives of the nation. He added that his party don’t consider the current parliament a true representative of the nation after the February 8 nationwide polls.

The Fazl-led party had played a vital role in running a political movement against the former ruling party — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — and its supremo headed the multi-party alliance of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for the successful ouster of the ex-premier Imran Khan in 2022 via parliamentary vote.

As the 2024 poll results drew criticism from different political parties, the politico-religious party also levelled rigging allegations.

The JUI-F, which won five National Assembly (NA), and 18 provincial assembly (PA) seats, collectively, in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), announced to stay away from being an ally of a new coalition led by the Nawaz-led party in the Centre and provinces but decided to play its parliamentary role as an opposition.