Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has decided to join the federal government, seven months after elections in May, Express News reported on Wednesday.
At least two JUI-F members, Abbas Afridi and Akram Durrani will be taking oath as federal ministers at the Aiwan-e-Saddar on Thursday.
Express News correspondent Khalid Mehmood reported that JUI-F had been in negotiations with the government in centre ever since the elections last May.
Akram Khan Durrani had been nominated once as a federal minister but an official notification for his appointment was never issued.
Following further negotiations, it is expected that now been decided that Durrani will be appointed as a Federal Minister while Maulana Ghafoor Haideri (who hails from Balochistan) is expected to assume charge as a Minister of State. There was no announcement of the portfolios they will be accorded.
Khurram Dastagir, the incumbent Minister of State for Commerce and Textile Industry, is expected to take oath as a Federal Minister.
Long-drawn negotiations
JUI-F and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have been inching closer to each other for some time now.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman has more than once offered his services to the ruling party in the way of negotiating with Taliban.
A month after the general elections of 2013, Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party decided to support Nawaz Sharif in his election as Prime Minister.
The Maulana had said then:
“We are closer to PML-N ideologically. As a goodwill gesture we have decided to support PM-designate Nawaz Sharif in the vote of confidence.”
A couple of months later, the then president Asif Ali Zardari’s nomination of Akram Durrani as federal minister hinted at a possible alignment with PML-N.
Fazl had laid down his conditions for becoming an ally of the PML-N government, but strongly dispelled the impression that his party was joining the PML-N led government for the sake of attaining ministries and privileges.
“These matters are not important for us,” he had said.
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