LAHORE: Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Sirajul Haq has said that Pakistan needs free and fair elections more than anything and it seems the only way possible to put the country on the track and strengthen democracy.

He said this while addressing a press conference at JI office Darusalam on Tuesday. To achieve the objective, the political parties must sit together to bring electoral reforms, he added.

However, he added, he was afraid the so-called mainstream parties did not want poll reforms because the PTI, PML-N and the PPP were the sides of the same coin and agents of the status quo.

"Their [PTI, PML-N, PPP] only objective is to serve the cause of their western masters."

The JI chief said that it seemed the only agenda of the PDM movement was to again attain power for the PML-N and the PPP as it had nothing to do with right of the people. He, however, condemned the crackdown against the opposition by the government and demanded the immediate release of the detained workers of the opposition parties.

Reminding the prime minister his promise for separate southern Punjab province, he said the PTI following the footsteps of the PPP also deceived the masses in the name of the separate province. In fact, he added, the feudal lords who were part of the three parties had least interest in the welfare of the small farmers, poor and lower middle class people of the area and they made tall claims during every election only to get vote.

The people of southern Punjab, he said, would no more fall in the trap of feudal lords and waderas and vote for the JI in the next elections. The JI, he said, would soon launch a full-fledged campaign for a separate province in Punjab. The movement, he said, would prove a last nail in the coffin of waderas politics in the area.

Senator Siraj announced that the JI would restart the anti-government movement from Gujranwala after few days. He said the decision to postpone the movement was made for two weeks in the interest of the public owing to growing Covid-19 cases in the country.

To a question, he regretted that the present government handed over Kashmir to Modi by making complete surrender before Indian hegemonic policies. However, he said, the JI would never leave the people of Kashmir alone in their struggle for freedom from Indian yoke.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020