'Call off sit-in, face me in poll battle': PTI's Gandapur throws down the gauntlet to Fazl

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Ali Amin Gandapur on Friday once again threw down the gantlet to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to call off his Islamabad sit-in and face him in an electoral fray.

In a fiery speech on the floor of the National Assembly, he said the Maulana has been making a hue and cry over alleged election tampering.

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“Fazlur Rehman, you talk about rigging. Come and contest election by installing cameras [inside polling stations],” he said, adding that the JUI-F chief was alive to the fact that the people rejected him in last year’s elections.

“I am saying on the floor of the house that I am ready [for a face-off],” he thundered, asking the JUI-F chief to tender an apology to the nation and call off the protest.

Taking up the gauntlet, Maulana Asad Mahmood, son of Maulana Fazl, said: “You announced that the Maulana contest election. According to you, the Maulana didn’t win [last year’s] election.”

Instead of his father, charged Asad said he is ready to face the minister in an electoral battle, asking him to resign from his NA seat first in order for him to do the same to go to the public to put the record straight.

Earlier, on Nov 2, Gandapur had announced to hold a public gathering in Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s constituency.

He challenged the Maulana to face him in the electoral ground and offered to leave his seat for a re-election.

While making the announcement, the minister claimed that he will exhibit public power in Maulana’s constituency, adding that a huge number of nationals will participate in the public gathering in the constituency where the opposition parties failed to jointly gather people for any event.

“I am challenging Maulana to win the elections again. If you [Fazlur Rehman] wish, then install a camera inside every polling station to contest the polls.”

“You should stop criticising the national institutions, you should dare to accept my challenge. Maulana will be given a humiliating defeat which he would remember for life,” he said.

“A person who had lost his seat [in the general election] is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister [Imran Khan].”