Pak elections: JUI-F to launch protest against 'rigging' in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Islamabad [Pakistan] February 18 (ANI): The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter rejected the poll results and announced a protest campaign against alleged rigging in the February 8 general elections, The News International reported.
JUI-F provincial president Maulana Ataur Rahman, while addressing a press conference, said his party will stage a protest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the institutions for their bid to push JUIF to the wall and impose 'elements', who 'plundered' the province for 10 years.
"The person, who is being projected as chief minister of the province, is known to all. Everyone is aware of his deeds and character," he said.
According to the report, JUIF provincial secretary general Ataul Haq Darvesh, secretary of information Abdul Jalil Jan and other leaders of the party were also present at the press conference.
The Maulana alleged further that the chief minister of the province was directly involved in the May 9 riots, according to The News International.
"He was responsible for attacking institutions and the bureaucracy. The institutions were holding meetings with him, which was tantamount to burying the narrative of May 9 and imposing these elements once again on the province," he said.
"JUIF would challenge this attitude of the institutions and would make it clear as with whom the nation was standing and who was being imposed on them against their will," he added.
He added that the district leadership, elected representatives and candidates for the elections will decide the date of the protest and flesh out other detalls at a meeting of the provincial shura on February 27, The News International reported.
He said there are complaints against 'invisible forces', adding the records from the past elections in terms of rigging were broken this time.
Pointing to 10 years of PTI rule, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the JUIF chief was a seasoned politician who welcomed even his enemies at his home.
"A meeting with the PTI delegation doesn't mean that JUIF has stepped back from its principled stance. How can we change our standpoint against the people who pushed the province to the quagmire during their 10-year rule?" he asked.
He added that the institutions had nothing to do with elections.
"The invisible forces are trying to push things to a point of no return. Such acts cause debacles of states. The invisible forces have planned to repeat the 1971 situation by stealing the mandate of the actual winners," he said. (ANI)