JUI-F formally breaks up as defiant Sherani-led leaders refuse to give in | The Express Tribune

Days after being expelled from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), estranged leaders have announced to separate their party faction from the one led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The cracks within the JUIF – the country’s largest politico-religious party – deepened last week when the party’s leadership expelled four of its senior members for “deviating from the party policy” and for “creating party within the party”.

The JUI-F disciplinary committee took action against Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan and Maulana Shuja-ul-Mulk.

Addressing a news conference along with other senior leaders in Islamabad on Tuesday, Maulana Sherani said they inherited Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) from their “great leaders” and it was Fazl who later established separate faction – JUI-F – in his own name.

 

Sherani said the membership of expelled leaders is still intact as per the constitution of the party as they are part of the JUI-P and added that they will not take any step which is against the Islamic teachings.

The crisis came to a head a few days ago when Maulana Sherani, who also has served as chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), harshly criticised Maulana Fazl and called him “selected” – a word used in derogatory meaning by the 11-party opposition alliance called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to describe Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Talking to reporters on December 22, Sherani also declared the PDM an “unnatural alliance that would soon break up because it has no ideology”. “Everyone [in the alliance] is struggling to come to power. Each party in the opposition alliance has its own set of interests,” he had said.