Don't force nation to decide its own future: Fazl

LAHORE: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Chief, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman on Sunday said lessons would have to be learned from past mistakes and that the nation must not be pushed to a limit where it resorts to decide its future on its own by putting the political leadership to a sideline, Geo News reported.

"The nation was always black mailed through use of pressure and fear mongering," Fazl lamented while addressing a programme held here at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

He exhorted the politicians to engage in 'politics of hope and not of fear'.

The JUI Chief said Pakistan, instead being transformed into a welfare state over the past 64 years, was turned into an unsafe place.

"America has been black mailing the country for the past 10 years, since it had no foreign policy (of its own)," he asserted, adding the pressure had come from the US at a time when the next year's budget is round the corner and Prime Minister has become 'controversial'.

He said the US has lost its temper on seeing the reigns of country's future going into the hands of the state institutions.