Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman ( ur, مولانا فضلُرحمٰن; born 19 June 1953) is a Pakistani

Islamic fundamentalist Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. Islamic fundamentalists are of the view that Muslim-majority countries should return t ...

politician who is the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). He is also the president of the

Pakistan Democratic Movement The Pakistan Democratic Movement ( ur, پاکستان ڈیموکریٹک موومنٹ), or PDM, is a coalition of political parties in Pakistan. It was founded in September 2020 as a movement against then prime minister Imran Khan, accusing his ...

(PDM), a coalition of political parties which ousted then

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

through a no-confidence motion in 2022. He was a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

between 1988 and 2018, and the Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007. He is a supporter of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

government in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and has demanded for its

international recognition Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral declarative political act of a state that acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state (may be also a recognized state). Recognition can be accord ...

. In the 1980s, he was part of the

Movement for the Restoration of Democracy The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) ( ur, اتحاد برائے بحالی جمہوریت), was a historically left-wing populism and massive socialist political alliance formed to oppose and end the military government of Preside ...

(MRD), which was formed to end the

military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

General Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...

. Rehman is a pro-Taliban politician, known for his close ties to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He has attempted to re-brand himself as a moderate without connections to religious extremists and hardliners. In the past, he has called for imposition of Sharia in Pakistan. Being a follower of

Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university and launched the Silk Letter Movement for t ...

who campaigned for liberation against the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

but later restricted his members from armed struggle after establishing Political party

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam ( ur, جمیعت علماءِ اسلام, abbreviated as JUI) was founded by Shabbir Ahmad Usmani as an offshoot of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) on 26 October 1945. History The original Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind was formed in Br ...

, Rehman opposed armed struggle to impose shariah laws as it leads to extremism in society. When in power in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

from 2004 to 2007, his party passed the 'Hasba Bill' which was later declared illegal and unconstitutional. Through this bill, he believed that he would be following in his father

Mufti Mahmud Mufti Mehmood ( ur, ; 1919–1980) was a Pakistani politician and Islamic scholar who was one of the founding members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry. After defeat in the 2018 Pakistani general election, Rehman was ejected from the National Assembly and failed to win major political support in

, bagging only 10 of the 99 seats in his home turf. Alleging election fraud, 11 opposition political parties formed the

(PDM) appointing Rehman as the president of this movement.

Early life

Rehman was born on 19 June 1953 (1 September according to another report) to a religious and political family in village Abul Kheel, D.I. Khan. His early education was from Millat High School, Multan and was a student of Mussarat Baig and Syed Iqbal Shah. He attained a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

(B.A) in 1983 from

University of Peshawar The University of Peshawar ( ps, د پېښور پوهنتون; hnd, پشور یونیورسٹی; ur, ; abbreviated UoP; known more popularly as Peshawar University) is a public research university located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pa ...

and completed his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at Al-Azhar University Cairo. During his early religious training and education (''Ilm Us Saraf, Ilm Un Nahv'', Logic) he remained the disciple of Mufti Muhammad Essa Gurmani and Molana Abdul Ghaffor Gurmani of Shadan Lund before studying ''Sharah-e-Mata-e-Aamil'' and ''Hidayat-un-Nahv'' with Muhammad Ameer of Chudwan in a Madrassa at Jhok wains Multan . He was a student of

Abdul Haq Akorwi Abdul Haq ( ur, , ps, عبدالحق; 11 January 19127 September 1988) of Akora Khattak, Pakistan, sometimes referred to as Abdul Haq Akorwi was a Pashtun Islamic scholar and the founder, chancellor, and Shaykh al-Hadith of the Islamic se ...

, Hasan Jan, and Syed Sher Ali Shah during his Shahadat-ul Alamia at

Darul Uloom Haqqania Darul Uloom Haqqania or Jamia Dar al-Ulum Haqqania ( ur, ) is an Islamic Seminary ( darul uloom or madrasa) in the town of Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwestern Pakistan. The seminary propagates the Hanafi Deobandi schoo ...

. His father,

Mufti Mahmud Mufti Mehmood ( ur, ; 1919–1980) was a Pakistani politician and Islamic scholar who was one of the founding members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( ur, وزیر اعلیٰ خیبر پختونخوا) is the head of government of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The chief minister leads the legislative branch of the provincial government ...

from 1972 to 1973. He and his family are part of the Deobandi movement.

Political career

Rehman began his political career as the secretary general of

in 1980 at the age of 27. This was after the death of his father Mufti Mahmud who was the leader of the party before his death. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam later split into two factions in the mid-1980s with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) led by Fazal. Rehman was elected as the member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1988 Pakistani general elections for the first time on from D.I. Khan seat. He then made connections with Afghan Taliban. Rehman ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1990 Pakistani general elections for the second time on from D.I. Khan seat but did not win the election. Rehman was elected as the member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1993 Pakistani general elections for the second time on Islamic Jamhoori Mahaz ticket from D.I. Khan seat. Fazal was appointed as the chairman of the Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs in National Assembly of Pakistan. Rehman ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1997 Pakistani general elections for the fourth time but did not win the election. Rehman led several anti-American protests and pro-Taliban rallies in the major cities of Pakistan following the war in Afghanistan in 2001. He criticised President of United States

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, and threatened to launch jihad against the United States if the bombings continued. He also criticised and warned President of the Pakistan

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

that he would be overthrown if he continued to support the “War on Terror”. In October 2001, Pervez Musharraf placed Fazal under house arrest in his native village Abdul Khel for inciting the citizens of Pakistan against the armed forces of Pakistan and for trying to overthrow the government of Pakistan. Later in March 2002, Fazal was set free and the cases against him were withdrawn. Rehman was elected as the member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 2002 Pakistani general elections for the third time on Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal ticket. He won on two seats, NA-24 and NA-25, the later was vacated. Upon winning the election, Fazal became a potential candidate for the post of prime minister of Pakistan but was not appointed. He served as the leader of the opposition from 2004 to 2007. Rehman ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in

2008 Pakistani general elections 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

for the sixth time on Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal ticket from two constituencies, NA-24, D.I. Khan which is his traditional constituency and NA-26, Bannu In September 2008, he was elected chairman of the Kashmir committee of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Rehman was elected as the member of the National Assembly of Pakistan for the fourth time on Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal ticket from Bannu constituency, but he lost the election in D.I. Khan constituency. By 2008, Fazal distanced himself from Taliban and called himself a moderate. In May 2014, Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

gave him the status of a federal minister for being the chairman of special committee of the National Assembly on Kashmir. In August 2017, Prime Minister

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ( ur, ; born 27 December 1958) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 21st prime minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018. Abbasi is the senior vice president of the Pakiatan Muslim League ...

gave him the same status again. Upon the dissolution of the National Assembly on the expiration of its term on 31 May 2018, he ceased to hold the status of a federal minister. In March 2018, he became head of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal which was revived in December 2017. Rehman ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 2018 Pakistani general elections from Dera Ismail Khan's constituencies, NA38 and NA 39 but did not win. On 27 August 2018, several opposition parties including Pakistan Muslim League (N), nominated him as a candidate in the 2018 presidential election. On 4 September 2018, he clinched 184 electoral votes behind

Arif Alvi Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi (; born 29 July 1949) is a Pakistani dentist and politician currently serving as the 13th President of Pakistan, in office since 9 September 2018. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2 ...

(352) and ahead of

Aitzaz Ahsan Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan ( ur, ; born 27 September 1945) is a Pakistani politician and lawyer. He served two times as the Leader of the House in the Senate of Pakistan from 1994 to 1997 and again from 2012 to 2015. He also served as the Leader o ...

(124) in the election.

Wikileaks 2007 dinner with US Ambassador

According to

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, in 2007 Rehman invited then US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, to a dinner in which he sought her support in becoming Prime Minister of Pakistan and expressed a desire to visit America. The ambassador wrote in her notes that Fazl sees himself as a Kingmaker. Fazl also reportedly told the ambassador that his votes were up for sale.

Controversies

Rehman opposed the Huqooq-e-Niswan bill in 2016 claiming that it was un-Islamic. Rehman also rejected the

Women's Protection Bill The Women's Protection Bill (Urdu: تحفظِ نسواں بل) which was passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on 15 November 2006 is an attempt to amend the heavily criticised 1979 Hudood Ordinance laws which govern the punishment for rap ...

in 2016, which protects domestic violence victims, claiming that the judicial execution of

Mumtaz Qadri Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri (1985 – 29 February 2016), better known as Mumtaz Qadri (, ur, ), was the assassin of Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab. Qadri was a commando of the Elite Police and, at the time of the assassination, a member ...

was wrong and declared that he was a martyr, rallying other right-wing religious parties to do the same.

Opposition to PTI

On numerous occasions, Rehman has displayed severe opposition to

and his political party, the ''Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf'' (PTI). In 2013 Rehman declared voting for the PTI as ''haram'' (religiously prohibited), asserting Khan to be supported by the West and the Jewish lobby and explicitly calling him an agent of "Americans, Jews, Ahmadis and a person of ill character". Former JUI-F leader Muhammad Khan Sherani took to Twitter and said that when he asked Fazl ur-Rehman does he have proof that

is a Jewish and Indian agent, Fazal responded with "it's just a political statement".

Azadi March

In late 2019 Rehman led a march towards

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

with the intent to sit-in, until PM Imran Khan resigned from office. rs The Azadi March which translates as "Freedom March" started from

Sukkur Sukkur (; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest city ...

on October 27, 2019, and travelled Sindh and Punjab; other political parties also joined the march which reached Islamabad on October 31, 2019. Rehman also addressed the participants at different points on the journey. However, he could not reach his aims and ended the march on 16 November 2019.

Pakistan Democratic Movement

In 2020, Rehman was unanimously elected as the leader of the coalition of political parties against the PTI government, the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

even favoured this appointment to be on a permanent basis but was opposed by others.

Bibliography

Books by him

*''Navīd-i inqilāb : Maulānā Faz̤lurraḥmān ke inṭarviyūz kā majmūʻah'', 1987, 117 p. Collection of interviews on the political conditions in Pakistan. Edited by ʻAbdulvadūd Shāhid. *''Insānī ḥuqūq'', 2000, 136 p. On human rights as interpreted in Islam, with particular reference to the role of NGO's in Pakistan. Edited by Raḥīm Ḥaqqanī. *''Z̤arb-i darvesh'', 2000, 446 p. Interviews on his anti-US movement; includes newspaper editorials and columns praising the movement. Edited by Riyāz̤ Durrānī. *''K̲h̲ut̤bāt-i Qāʼid-i Jamʻīyat'', 2002, 2 volumes. Collection of speeches in defense of radical Islamic movements in different countries and against alleged American designs to rule the world. Edited by Momin K̲h̲ān ʻUs̲mānī. *''Mushāfihāt'', 2017, 3 volumes. Collected interviews. Edited by Amīrzādah K̲h̲ān Yūsufzaʼī.

Books about him

*ʻAbdulqayyūm Shaik̲h̲, ''Maulānā Faz̤lurraḥmān ka siyāsī safar'', 2004, 514 p. On his political struggle. *Momin K̲h̲ān ʻUs̲mānī, ''Maulānā Faẓlurraḥmān : shak̲h̲ṣiyyat o kirdār'', 2017, 808 p. Biography. *Maulānā Muḥammad Qāsim Ḥaqqānī, ''Mīr-i kārvān̲ Maulānā Faẓlurraḥmán : duniyāʼe ṣaḥāfat kī naz̤ar men̲'', 2017, 188 p. Collection of news articles on the politics of Faz̤lurraḥmān, published in various newspapers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rehman, Fazal-Ur 1953 births Living people Leaders of the Opposition (Pakistan) Pashtun people Deobandis Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) politicians People from Dera Ismail Khan District Pakistani MNAs 2013–2018 Pakistani Islamists Pakistani MNAs 1988–1990 Pakistani MNAs 1993–1996 Pakistani MNAs 2002–2007 Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MNAs Al-Azhar University alumni