Fazal-ur-Rahman, also known as

Fazal-ur-Rahman, also known as ameer jamiat (born on June 19, 1953 in Abdul Khel, Dera Ismail Khan) was elected as MNA for his third term on an MMAP. He is the President (Ameer) of JUI(F). He is also Secretary General of MMAP.
 
History and Background
Fazl ur-Rahman inherited from his father mass public support from their native area of Dera Ismail Khan. Of the four general elections that Fazl ur-Rahman contested since 1988 from his national assembly constituency, NA-18, he won two with convincing margins.

In the two he lost - in 1990 and 1997 - were, as his supporters put it, more because of the engineered results that entrusted heavy mandates to the Sharifs of Lahore on both the occasions. It was because of the family's mass public support and large vote bank in the Dera Ismail Khan constituency that Maulana Mufti Mahmood was the lone leader in Pakistan who had defeated the then invincible Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1970 general elections.

Fazal ur-Rahman's politics, like his father's, has been at odds with the Muslim League. The father was in Jama'at Ulema-i-Hind (Madani group) which shared the views of the Congress on the partition issue. Fazl ur-Rahman remained in the camp of the political alliances and parties that were opposed to Nawaz Sharif's League. Only once did he contest the election in alliance with the PML, in 1990, and then too he lost.

Fazl ur-Rahman built his public image by supporting Zulfaqir Ali Bhutto's daughter Benazir Bhutto during her second term as the prime minister. His cooperation with the PPP to some extent diminished temporarily his party's image of an anti-secular religio-political entity.
Achievements and Activities

Aveteran politician, the Maulana has been elected to the National Assembly three times since 1988. During former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's stint in office, he was appointed as the chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs. In that capacity he built up an extensive network in the Middle East to gather both moral and financial support for his cause. He also travelled to the United States and met senior officials.

Fifty-one-year-old Maulana Rahman, sporting a grey beard and a yellow turban, is a powerful man. He comes from a religious and political family from the southern district of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). His father, Maulana Mufti Mahmoud, was an Islamic scholar and politician who was the NWFP's chief minister in the 1970s.

Fazlur Rahman took over the JUI's reins as secretary general after his father's death. The JUI, which represents the Deobandi school of Islamic thought, split into two factions in the 1980s on the question of joining General Zia ul Haq's military government. Fazlur Rahman leads the main faction, the JUI-F, while JUI-S is led by Maulana Sami ul Haq, another pro-Taleban Islamist leader.

He warned that General Musharraf would be overthrown if he continued supporting the US. The Americans were not amused by the Maulana's rhetoric. They knew he had enough clout and support to stoke the fires of hatred and violence against the anti-Taleban forces.

In October 2001, President Musharraf was left with no choice but to place Fazlur Rahman under house arrest. The JUI chief was charged with sedition for inciting the people against the armed forces and for trying to overthrow the government. However, he was set free in March this year and all the cases against him were withdrawn.
 
Current Status

Fazal-ur-Rahman is on opposition banches in National Assembly and Senate of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. His party Jamiat ulama e islam has separated from the government of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on issues of corruption, specifically the Hajj corruption scandal.