Slogan of Roti, Kapra and Makaan do nothing in Pakistan: Fazl

KARACHI: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazlur-Rehman has said that slogan of Roti, Kapra and Makaan never provide relief to the people of Pakistan and the government should provide facilities to labours for an improvement of economy.

He was addressing a huge rally held at Baghe Jinnah here on Friday. The JUI chief has declared feudal system as oppressive system and has destroyed economy of Pakistan and this was remnant of British era.

He further said that our economy will never improve if we will not support the labours class and poor peoples.

The JUI chief said that we would not give permission to the rulers to decide public’s fate and demanded free and fair election. He said that if free and fair election not to happen in the country so many questions will be raised regarding the democratic system and those questions would be very serious.

He said that the government not implementing on the recommendation of the parliament regarding drone attacks and war against terrorism. He further said that those who not implementing on the recommendations were biggest criminal than militant groups.

Earlier hundreds of thousands of people thronged Baghe Jinnah Karachi, the venue of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JU-F) rally , a month after Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) held a massive public show at the same.

People from across the city and interior Sindh began filling the Baghe Jinnah near Quaid’s mausoleum shortly after Friday prayer , holding party flags and chanting slogans Allaho Akbar (God is great).

According to reports, a large number of seminary students also turned up to attend the rally titled as, “Islam Zinda Bad Conference ” .

Some analysts opined that the JUI rally outnumbered the PTI rally as far as participants are concerned, but a large numbers of participants of JUI rally were seminaries’ students.

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Musharraf will “certainly” be arrested if he returns: Gilani

DAVOS: Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf will “certainly” be arrested if he returns to Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Friday.

“In fact there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him,” Gilani told CNN from the Global Economic Forum in Davos.

“Certainly when he’ll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested,” he said.

Musharraf announced plans to return from exile in late January and to run in upcoming elections, but his party said he was reassessing those plans when the government warned that if he returned, he faced arrest.

Pakistan’s upper house of Parliament Senate passed a non-binding resolution early this week demanding Musharraf be arrested and tried for treason for unconstitutional acts during his regime. The charges against him are in connection with 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf, who has been living in London & Dubai since resigning in 2008, has denied allegations, arguing that Bhutto had police protection and took unnecessary risks, but a Pakistani court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Separately, Gilani admitted “a lot of challenges” in the war on terrorism, including militancy in the country’s northwest region. “We are fighting for our own selves, for our own survival, because these militants, they have killed 30,000 innocent people, 5,000 brave soldiers,” he said.

The fight against terrorism has caused a “loss of economy,” Gilani said, but investment in the country remains. “Yes, we are fighting a war on extremism and terrorism, and we’re a front-line state, yes, there are a lot of challenges,” he said.

“But it doesn’t mean that there is no investment coming to Pakistan. We have offered very lucrative incentives for investment in Pakistan and there were lot of investment coming to Pakistan.”

Gilani also said people in Pakistan are “bitter” over an attack by Nato forces last November that killed 24 Pakistani troops. “We have paid so much price for the war on terrorism. People should appreciate our struggle.”

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Pervez Musharraf decides to delay Pakistan return . . . again

DUBAI: Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf has delayed his return home, the head of his party announced Friday after repeated threats by the country’s leadership that the ex-strongman would be arrested upon arrival.

“He finally decided today that he would accept the recommendations” of the executive committee of the All Pakistan Muslim League party to delay his return, party secretary general Mohammed Ali Saif told reporters.

“This decision (of returning) will be deliberated by the core committee of the party,” he said.

Friends and supporters had urged Musharraf to put off an imminent homecoming after Islamabad said he would be arrested if he returned from more than three years of self-imposed exile in London and Dubai.

Speaking to CNN in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said Musharraf would “certainly” be arrested if he set foot back in Pakistan.

Musharraf had promised to fly home to contest general elections as Pakistan’s government sinks deeper into a major crisis, squeezed by the military and the judiciary.

But he faces two Pakistani court warrants for his arrest in connection with the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a rebel leader in the southwest, and the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto after her own homecoming.

In an interview broadcast on BBC radio earlier this month, Musharraf acknowledged he would be in danger in Pakistan.

“I do feel endangered. There is a danger certainly, but you take your own protection and then leave things to destiny. Nobody can ensure you 100 per cent protection,” he said.

He admitted that his arrest in Pakistan was possible but said he would “like to remain out” of the crisis engulfing the government, army and judiciary.

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