Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, the chief of JUI-F(Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam), held a public rally at Thonsa Sharif today. In a typical fashion the name of his rally was “Islam Zindabad Conference”. The attendees mostly consisted of people who were associated with Madrassas(religious schools) of JUI-F or people who attended the rally mainly because of the catch name “Islam Zindabad Conference”. Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman lambasted almost all of the political parties of Pakistan and termed them pro-establishment.

Maulana Saab directed his attention towards the yesterday’s speech of Army Chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani. He said that while he respected the opinion of the Army Chief, he disagreed with it. He referred to General Kiyani’s statement, war against terrorists was Pakistan’s own war, and said that it was the Army itself who made it our war. He said that it was initially not our war but the faulty policies of Army made it our war. If they had not opted to become a party in the war against terrorism, we would not be in this mess today.

On the other hand, Mr. Altaf Hussain of MQM, while addressing a rally at Hyderabad, said that the statement of General Kiyani has given new hope to the people of Pakistan. General Kiyani had said that a group of a few handful terrorists could not be allowed to determine the fate of the whole country. These terrorists do not even recognize the constitution of Pakistan, he said further. Altaf Hussain appreciated the role of Army and especially General Kiyani’s in fighting against these enemies of Pakistan.

Earlier in a joint press conference of ANP, MQM, and PPP, Farooq Sattar of MQM had blamed the establishment of Pakistan of playing the dirty game of hijacking the upcoming election of 2013. He had said that left-wing liberal parties are deliberately sidelined to provide a free passage to right-wing pro-Taliban parties.