LAHORE: Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Sirajul Haq has announced to kick off the JI election campaign on March 14 from Islamabad. While addressing a press conference after three-day meeting of Majlis-e Shura (top consultative council), he also reiterated the demand for general elections in all over the country, asking the governments dissolve central and Sindh assemblies.

He said the national exchequer could not afford polls in parts in prevailing circumstances. He also demanded the military establishment not to interfere in political process this time, allowing the people choose their representatives in free and fair way.

JI Chief said “The JI will gather its national and provincial assembly’s ticket holder in Islamabad on March 14 and announce manifesto.”

Haq said the PDM and PPP government already failed to deliver as it acted like a vehicle which had four drivers. The leaders of the unity government had done nothing in 11 months except to get clean chits from different cases, he said, adding if the situation was bad in PTI tenure, it had turned into worst now. So, he said, elections were the only way forward to bring the country out of prevailing crises. He said the JI was the only option with the people of Pakistan after complete failure of the so-called major parties.

The JI, he said, would hold the sit-in in front of Sindh Election Commission office in Karachi on March 10 if the electoral body had not fulfilled its constitutional obligation to complete the local government polls in the port city. He said the JI would not allow the PPP to influence the results. The mayor of Karachi would be from the JI as per the mandate of the people of cosmopolitan city, he said.

Sirajul Haq also announced sit-in in Quetta for the rights of the people of Gwadar and release of Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, the leader of the Gwadar Right Movement, and his other colleagues. He said the leaders of Gwadar Right Movement were detained unlawfully and illegally. He said the people of Gwadar were demanding their rights and it was responsibility of the government to fulfill their demands. He said the government must not push the people to the wall as it would create further problems in already disturbance-hit province.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023