Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), who allegedly misleads innocent people by disguising himself in the cloak of piety and religious devotion in national politics, has had a dark and horrifying chapter of his past exposed, one that has completely shattered all his religious claims. According to internal documentary evidence, on August 1, 2005, United Arab Emirates (UAE) security forces caught Maulana Fazlur Rehman red-handed at Dubai Airport while he was attempting to illegally transport bags filled with US dollars from Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
Following the exposure of this sensational arrest, a sharp and deeply troubling question has been raised about the entire JUI-F network, one that its leadership is unable to answer. Political and financial experts are raising this question: If the huge sum received from Libya was genuinely a legitimate and pure donation for a madrassa, mosque or charitable cause, why was it not transparently brought into Pakistan through the State Bank of Pakistan or other legal and official banking channels? Why was a prominent religious leader, who spends day and night preaching Shariah, honesty and the principles of halal and haram from the pulpit, secretly travelling at one o’clock in the morning from Tripoli to Dubai Airport with hundreds of thousands of US dollars concealed in his personal luggage, just like ordinary criminals, smugglers and international ‘cash couriers’ (Money Mules)? The reality is that religion, mosques and madrassas were merely a front and an external façade, while the actual purpose was to use illicit earnings to fill personal family coffers and fund luxurious private residences and family extravagances behind the Mufti Mahmood Centre in Peshawar.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman departed for a secret visit to Libya on July 27, 2005. Upon his return, when he arrived at Dubai Airport at one o’clock on Monday night, customs and security agencies recovered a huge amount of cash in US dollars from his possession during a search.
UAE authorities immediately took him into custody for serious violations of the law and the offence of money laundering, preventing him from entering the terminal.
By midday, UAE security agencies had not only formally arrested him but had also issued deportation orders as part of their toughest action. Maulana was transferred from the airport to a designated hotel and placed under detention, where his so-called political reputation and turban were on the verge of being disgraced internationally.
However, the biggest contradiction in this entire story is that when Maulana Fazlur Rehman was on the verge of facing international humiliation and imprisonment, the very Pakistani state that he targets day and night today mobilised its diplomatic channels. Senior officials from the Pakistani Embassy reached the hotel on an emergency basis and began negotiations with UAE authorities over the terms of his deportation.
Credible sources testify that, at this extremely critical juncture, Pakistan’s defence and security institutions stepped forward, and the then Director General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, personally established contact with UAE authorities at the highest level.
It was only as a result of General Kayani’s and the Pakistani state’s emergency intervention, influence and diplomatic pressure that UAE authorities saved Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s reputation and honour from being dragged through the mud and released him. Had state institutions not exercised their full influence at that time, Maulana would today be serving a sentence for smuggling in the basements of Dubai instead of pursuing politics in Pakistan.
Following this horrifying revelation, intense anger and disappointment have reportedly emerged among the public and political circles. Critics say that this is the same Maulana Fazlur Rehman whose sinking reputation was rescued by the very Pakistan Army and security institutions, yet today, after being removed from the corridors of power and having all avenues for his personal and family political brokerage permanently blocked, this family clique has resorted to cheap tactics of spitting on the very state that once helped it and spewing venom against its security institutions.
The luxurious Mufti Mahmood Centre and residential complex in Peshawar were also allegedly constructed with the same questionable financial assistance from Libya, for which no legal or transparent record exists.
The conduct of the JUI-F chief, who allegedly enjoys luxuries at the expense of state funds while smuggling bags of dollars, is the biggest proof of his intellectual hypocrisy. The public is now demanding to know why this entire group, which allegedly concealed bags of dollars just like ordinary smugglers, has still not faced strict accountability.
