Maulana Fazlur Rehman re-elected JUI-F Ameer for five-year term

PESHAWAR: In a significant development, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been re-elected as the Ameer (leader) of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) for a five-year term.

Simultaneously, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Hydari has been re-elected as the General Secretary of the JUI-F.

The endorsement was made at the central general assembly of the JUI-F held in Peshawar.

The decisions were announced by JUI spokesperson Aslam Ghori, following a meeting attended by provincial and central leadership at the Mufti Mahmood Centre in Peshawar.

Maulana Fazalur Rehman was born in 1953 in Dera Ismail Khan, where his father Mufti Mahmud was a prominent cleric and politician.

He studied at a local madrassa and later at the University of Peshawar and Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He inherited his father’s party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1980 and became its president.

He entered politics in 1988 and became a member of the National Assembly. He was part of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy that opposed General Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship.

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He also supported Benazir Bhutto’s right to become the prime minister, despite the opposition of Jamaat-e-Islami.

He became the leader of the opposition in 2004 and formed a coalition of religious parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He tried to implement Sharia laws through the Hasba Bill, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

He later allied with the PPP and the PML-N governments. He opposed the US-led war on terror and demanded the recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

He formed the Pakistan Democratic Movement in 2020, a coalition of opposition parties that aimed to oust Imran Khan’s government.