ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): An old leaked cable of a 2007 meeting of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman with the then US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson is doing the rounds again on social media.
An internal cable released by the US Embassy in Islamabad in 2007 was regarding a meeting with the JUI-F chief, which had covered talks over the elections in Pakistan, its status, and the US policy on Afghanistan, among other key issues, reported The NEWS.
“Ambassador Discusses Elections with Fazlur Rehman,” is the subject of the cable signed by former US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson dated Nov 27, 2007.
The cable documents a November 20, 2007, meeting between Patterson and Fazlur Rehman. According to the cable, the US ambassador conveyed her government’s support for lifting the emergency and for conducting “fair and free elections.”
Fazlur Rehman, too, expressed his support for fair and free elections but stressed that the JUI-F would not participate in the polls as the major political opposition, but would also not call for public protests against the emergency and would participate in street agitation only after the lifting of the emergency imposed during the Musharraf regime in November 2007.
He also explained that there were no plans to protest the imposition of emergency and added that JUI-F would soon decide on the mode of their public demonstration in support of elections and against the state of emergency.
Fazlur Rehman asked whether the US government would deal with him if he were elected Prime Minister and inquired as to whether Washington would approve of his likely candidature in the coming elections, the cable quoted him. Fazlur Rehman expressed sorrow over the potential fall of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto and confided that he needed to figure out whether he was able to cooperate with Benazir politically in the coming years.
The issue of tribal areas and the subsequent development as the NWFP, now KP, and lawlessness in the region came up when Fazlur Rehman expressed concerns that security would hamper the upcoming elections in some areas, thereby greatly impacting JUI-F’s performance in the forthcoming elections.
Discussions on Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were also brought in as Fazlur Rehman expressed discontent with the US policy, while Patterson differentiated between the Afghan Taliban willing to negotiate and the al-Qaeda network.
