The JUI-F advisory council order is out: the party’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter has issued show-cause notices to its members serving on the provincial advisory council, directing them to resign within three days or face suspension of their party membership. The party also rejected the imposition of governor’s rule and an emergency in the province, describing the move as an undemocratic step.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the JUI-F provincial executive committee held at the party’s provincial secretariat, Mufti Mahmood Centre, in Peshawar, under the chairmanship of provincial chief Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman.
Provincial General Secretary Senator Maulana Attaul Haq Darvesh briefed the committee on decisions taken at a recent meeting of the party’s central Shura. Senator Attaur Rehman also discussed the prevailing political tensions, the party’s efforts to mediate between the opposition and the ruling party, and the situation arising from the proposed imposition of governor’s rule and an emergency.
Why the JUI-F advisory council order matters
According to a statement issued by the JUI-F media cell, the provincial executive committee termed the federal government’s decision regarding governor’s rule and an emergency in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa a negation of democratic principles.
The meeting rejected the establishment of the advisory council itself and directed JUI-F members who had not yet resigned to step down within three days. Failure to comply would result in their party membership being considered suspended, the statement said.
The committee also expressed serious concern over what it described as irresponsible remarks by the provincial information adviser about religious seminaries. It maintained that linking seminaries to terrorism was contrary to facts and deeply regrettable.
Religious seminaries, the party said, were centres of peace, love and tolerance and had consistently supported the state in its fight against terrorism. Hundreds of religious scholars had themselves fallen victim to terrorism and sacrificed their lives, it added.
The meeting described the information adviser’s remarks as frivolous and urged him to exercise responsibility, restraint and regard for facts while commenting on national issues. It said the remarks had sparked resentment among religious circles and amounted to an attempt to undermine the sacrifices of those who had lost their lives in the fight against terrorism.
The smear campaign complaint
The committee also deplored what it called a smear campaign against the JUI-F and its chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, allegedly conducted on social media by certain groups and paid vloggers. It said fabricated narratives could not undermine the party leadership’s role and principled political stance.
The party’s media team had previously countered such narratives and would continue responding to what it described as misleading propaganda, the statement added.
The wider Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa power struggle
The JUI-F order lands in the middle of an open struggle over who runs Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The province’s chief minister is under house arrest, and the governor has spoken publicly about the situation. Feature Pakistan covered that standoff in our report on Governor Kundi’s remarks on Afridi and the assembly speaker, in which the governor said both men were in safe hands.
Human rights voices have also weighed in on the emergency question. Our report on the HRCP demand to lift the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa emergency covered the call for the emergency to end. The JUI-F position now adds a party-political voice to that debate: not only should the emergency go, the party says, but the advisory council set up around it should lose its members too.
The JUI-F has cast itself in this episode as a mediator between the opposition and the ruling party. The executive committee meeting discussed those mediation efforts directly. The quit order tests that role: a mediator that pulls its own people out of the council is signalling that it does not accept the council as a legitimate forum.
What happens next
The three-day clock is now running. If JUI-F members on the advisory council resign, the council loses a share of its membership and the party’s break with it becomes formal. If any member refuses, the party says their membership will be considered suspended, which would turn an internal disciplinary matter into a public split.
The larger question, governor’s rule and an emergency, remains undecided. The JUI-F has now put its position on the record in Peshawar: both are undemocratic, and the council built around them should be abandoned.
Source reporting: The Express Tribune.
