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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman said Thursday that the no-confidence motion that ousted former prime minister Imran Khan was tabled on the directives of ex-army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa.
In an interview on a private news channel, Fazl, who was the chief of the multi-party alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) responsible for removing Khan, said: “I was personally against the no-confidence move […] but if I had said no despite insistence of other parties, then an impression would’ve been given that I ‘saved’ the PTI founder.”
The PDM removed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in April 2022 and led by Shehbaz Sharif, the multi-party alliance ruled the country for 16 months before handing over the reins to the caretaker set-up.
At first, Khan insisted that the US had him removed — a claim that the Joe Biden administration vehemently rejected. However, the ex-prime minister later shifted the blame to Gen Bajwa.
In an interview in February last year, Khan, citing an apparent conversation of the retired general with a journalist, said General Bajwa had “accepted and clarified that he was behind our government’s ouster”.
After he became the first prime minister to be ousted via a no-trust motion, Khan continued a tirade against the establishment; however, politicians also said that the ex-army chief was involved in the PTI’s ouster.
Fazl, during the interview, said: “While the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was running the movement for a no-confidence motion, Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid told me that I could do whatever I wanted, but within the system.”
The JUI-F chief said Hamid told him that he could not “do anything outside the system” — meaning that every move should be made inside the parliament, not on the streets.
“But I rejected his directions,” he said, but noted that later on, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and others left the PTI-led government.
“When they said that [the anti-PTI] is now in majority, I had to agree with them otherwise it would’ve been said that I helped save Imran Khan,” the JUI-F chief, who has rejected February 8 election results, said.
