The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has agreed to lend its support to the PTI in the nomination of Mehmood Khan Achakzai of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) for the post of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly (NA).
The development comes more than a week after the PTI formally requested the appointment of Achakzai, whose party is also part of the opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Ain-e-Pakistan (TTAP) along with five other parties, including the PTI, as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
The position of opposition leader in the lower house of Parliament has been vacant since the disqualification of PTI’s Omar Ayub Khan on August 5.
According to a statement published on JUI-F’s X account today, a PTI delegation visited the residence of Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Islamabad, “where JUI-F agreed to support the nomination of Mehmood Khan Achakzai.”
The PTI delegation included Asad Qaiser, PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) president Junaid Akbar and Shahram Khan Tarakai, while JUI-F chief Fazl was accompanied by Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi, lawyer Jalaluddin and his son Maulana Asjad Mehmood.
During the meeting, “the PTI delegation appealed to the JUI-F chief to play a role in uniting the opposition in parliament,” the statement said, adding that the PTI also asked the JUI-F to “cooperate” with it regarding a vacant KP Senate seat.
The two sides also discussed the current political and regional situation, he added.
According to the statement, the PTI also “consulted the JUI-F chief about the proposal to hold a national meeting jirga on the law and order situation in KP.”
For his part, Fazl welcomed the proposal, according to the statement.
A later post on the TTAP account
The publication also stated that during the meeting it was decided that the TTAP would hold public meetings across the country in November.
Earlier this week, PTI general secretary Salman Akram Raja had said that the PTI did not see the possibility of the JUI-F supporting it for the post of NA opposition leader.
Responding to a question about rumors about a new NA opposition leader and whether the JUI-F would support the PTI, Raja had said: “Considering the past, I don’t think they will go with us in the end, and whether they form an alliance with the PPP or the PML-N, I can’t say anything about it, but we (PTI) really have no interest in it.”
On the same day, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met Fazl where the two discussed formulating a joint strategy on key national issues.
