Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Amir Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the no-confidence vote in Parliament that ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan was moved under the direction of former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.
He said these things in an interview given to a Pakistani television channel on Thursday (February 15).
Fazlur Rahman said, I was personally against the motion of no confidence. But if I had not spoken in the face of pressure from other parties, I would have been labeled as having saved the PTI founder.
After the fall of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government led by Imran Khan, a coalition government was formed under the leadership of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif. That government ruled Pakistan for 16 months before a caretaker government was formed ahead of national elections on February 8.
After being ousted in April 2022, Imran Khan first blamed the US. The Joe Biden administration has been denying his allegations. Later, however, Imran blamed former army Chief General Bajwa for this.
In an interview in February last year, Imran Khan quoted a journalist's conversation with General Bajwa and said that General Bajwa admitted that he was behind the overthrow of the PTI government.
Imran Khan has consistently spoken out against the military since losing power in a no-confidence vote in parliament as the first Prime Minister in Pakistan's history. However, many Pakistani politicians have said that the former army chief was involved in the overthrow of the PTI government.
In the interview, Fazlur Rehman said, "When the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was agitating for a no-confidence motion; Lt. Gen. (retd) Faiz Hamid told me that I can do whatever I want, but within the system."
He said Hamid told him he could not do anything outside the system. That is to say, everything to be done must be done inside the parliament. Nothing can be done on the streets. But I rejected his instructions, said Fazlur. In this context he mentioned that later, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and others left the PTI-led government.
He further said, "When they said that the anti-PTI is now in the majority, I had to agree with them." Otherwise I would have been told that I helped protect Imran Khan.