ISLAMABAD - Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq has said that if Supreme Court wants to play a role in elections issue, it should take all the stakeholders on board and build consensus on national polls. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said that only general elections instead of polls in two provinces could only bring stability. Holding the PDM, the PPP and the PTI equally responsible for economic, political and constitutional crises, he said the ruling parties failed to fulfil their responsibility towards the public issues and dragged institutions into their fight for self-interests. He said the JI watched the politics of so-called big parties closely and entered into alliances with a few of them in the past for the country’s sake. The JI, he said, reached the conclusion that politics was business and game for the major political players. Therefore, he added, the JI had decided to stay away from them in future. “We would go to the elections on our own symbol. We have nominated our contesters for it at all national and provincial assembly seats.” The JI, he said, would announce its future strategy on March 9.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi being treated unjustly in jail: Zain Qureshi
The central government targeted the poor at the direction of the IMF, imposing billions of rupees of taxes on the masses. The government, he said, was not willing to touch those who held properties abroad and owned foreign bank accounts. Among them, he added, were top politicians, bureaucrats, retired judges and generals. He said 18 powerful politicians, industrialists and property tycoons own Rs4000 billion. Still, they paid taxes equal to the common man, and no institutions had the courage to question them about their properties, he added. The JI chief demanded the Election Commission to complete the process of local government polls in Karachi, announce results in six UCs and hold polls in 11 other constituencies where elections were postponed due to different reasons. He warned the provincial government of Sindh not to interfere in local bodies’ polls and influence the ECP. If the influence continued, he said the people of Karachi would take to the streets.
PM directs sending of 50,000 winter tents to Turkiye by March 23
He demanded the Supreme Court to take notice of private prisons run under feudal lords in parts of the country. He said the foreign minister visited every country on a map, but the PPP chairman never went to the Sindh area, where people were tortured and put in private jails. He also demanded the government to give rights to the people of Gwadar and release Gwadar Rights Movement leader Maulana Hidayatur Rahman and his colleagues. He said the law and order situation had worsened in Balochistan and KP. Still, he said, the federal and provincial governments and security institutions completely failed to protect the life and property of the masses. The government of the 14 parties, he said, wrote history with its bad governance and incompetence during the past months. The JI, he said, will spread the ongoing movement against inflation in every nook and corner of the country. The poor people of Pakistan, he said, were no longer ready to be scapegoats for the protocols and pleasures of the rulers and IMF conditions.
PM directs strict action against profiteers, hoarders in Ramazan
The government, he said, targeted the poor people at the behest of the global lender. He said the government further increased the interest rate, ignoring the Federal Shariat Court decision against riba.