PTI should benefit from Fazl's 'experience' to return to power: CM Gandapur

• Gandapur welcomes JUI-F’s anti-government drive.
• KP chief minister says PTI has smashed idol of fear.
• "Those who are harming cause of PTI won't be spared."
  

With the six-party opposition alliance launched its protest movement last month against the PML-N-led government in the Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Monday said that the PTI should benefit from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s “experience”.

In an exclusive interview on the Geo News programme “Capital Talk”, CM Gandapur said: “[We] should benefit from Maulana Sahib’s experience as he knows [better] what had been happening in Pakistan.”

Urging the JUI-F chief to bring “transparency” in his claims, the provincial chief executive said Maulana Fazl earlier announced that the PDM and he sent former prime minister Imran Khan home but he now said that former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa was behind the regime change operation.

It is pertinent to mention here that the JUI-F chief — a former political foe of Khan — while addressing the gathering in Dasu in November 2022, said: “No conspiracy was hatched against you, but it was the PDM, that forcefully toppled the PTI-led government as a part of a much-needed process for the ‘nourishment’ of the country’s economy.”

The situation, however, changed after the February 8 general elections as the PTI and the JUI-F forged consensus that the polls were rigged.

After finding “ideological coordination” regarding the anti-govt movement, the JUI-F chief came out in open support of the PTI and asked the PML-N-led government to respect the “constitutional rights” of the former ruling party.

Backing the narrative of the Khan-founded party, the JUI-F chief in February claimed that the former army chief and ex-spymaster Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, who was the then-Peshawar corps commander, had orchestrated no-confidence move against Khan. Later, Maulana Fazl backtracked on no-trust claims saying that he had “mistakenly uttered” the name of the military officers.

Responding to a question, the PTI leader welcomed the JUI-F’s anti-government movement.

To another query, the CM said: “Our party had smashed the idol of fear but the idol of ego has to be broken.” He termed Khan “innocent” and said that he was jailed without any crime.

Speaking on the occasion, Gandapur warned: “Those who are harming the cause of our party will not be spared either.”

To another question about the Supreme Court’s verdict on the reserved seats, the CM said the series of lawlessness finally broke today.

Earlier today the top court suspended the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) verdict on reserved seat while accepting the Sunni Ittehad Council's (SIC) plea against the high court's ruling.

The chief executive was of the view that his party would get over 77 seats across the country due to the apex court order.