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

• JUI-F senator stopped from travelling to China at airport.
• Maulana says country sitting on a powder keg of problems.
• "Ruling coalition to become minority govt if PPP withdrew support."

ISLAMABAD: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Monday that his party would support a no-confidence motion against the government if one was tabled, warning that the ruling coalition would become a minority government if the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) withdrew its support.

Addressing a press conference, Maulana said the opposition was not currently in a position to bring a no-confidence motion and that no such move was under consideration at present.

However, he made clear that JUI-F's position was that the government could neither be formed nor sustained without the party's support.

He 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.

"The nation is being kept unaware of the entire situation," he said, adding that problems should be brought to parliament while those sitting in government remained silent.

Maulana said the government's writ was absent in two provinces, with street crimes rampant in Sindh and banks being looted in broad daylight in Balochistan. "There is no system capable of protecting banks or citizens," he said.

He revealed that a JUI-F senator, Abdul Shakoor Khan, had been stopped at the airport the previous day and prevented from travelling to China.

He also said ministers in his province were being stopped on roads. "When some parties announced protests, Islamabad was filled with containers," he said.

Maulana said the country was under increasing debt pressure, inflation had risen sharply, and the public's suffering had no 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.

The senior politician said JUI-F had consistently raised the issue of provincial rights, stressing that provinces' resources belonged to their people and that the party would fight for provincial rights through constitutional means.