Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), expressed serious worries about the “stealing of public mandate” in polls and criticized the institutions for “manipulation” of the election results on Wednesday.
In his speeches at public events, the JUI-F leader has frequently accused the general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024, of being more crooked than the ones held in 2018. In response to suspected cheating in the January 5 by-election for the provincial constituency PB-45 (Quetta-8), when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) proclaimed the PPP’s candidate the victor, the Fazl-led party this week observed a wheel-jam strike in Balochistan.
“Institutions manipulate election [results] to consolidate their authority, while politicians also make compromises [on their principles] to come to power,” the maulana stated at a press conference in Lahore.
