JI wants LG polls in KP under judiciary

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Monday demanded that the Election Commission should hold the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the auspices of the judiciary so that nobody could raise a finger on the outcome of the polls.
“This is our demand that Election Commission of Pakistan should hold the polls through the judiciary,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan said while addressing a function at the conclusion of Dars-e-Bukhari Sharif at the party’s headquarters, Al Markaz-i-Islami.
The minister admitted that there were problems in many areas due to which the JI and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were yet to announce an alliance.“The policy of the JI is that both the parties should contest together. However, the alliance has been formed between the two parties at a few places only,” he added.
He said the provincial government was working on the by-laws and rules of business to hand over 24 departments to the local governments. “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is to elect 45,000 representatives on May 30 to better serve their areas,” he maintained.
The minister said that the previous coalition government of the Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples’ Party had removed Islamic topics from the textbooks that have recently been restored.
He said the seminaries were the fortresses of Islam but the West was defaming the Islamic schools, religious scholars, turban and beard.In his address, JI central General Secretary Liaqat Baloch said that Daesh and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan-like groups were created for fomenting instability in the Muslim Ummah. “The religious scholars of the country have to play a key role in educating the people about Islamic injunctions,” he stressed.
The JI leader said that there should be no discrimination in the crackdown against the militants under the National Action Plan. “Every terrorist needs to be eliminated whether he is involved in terrorist activities on the basis of religion, sect or ethnicity. We want strictest action against all these terrorists,” he said.
The JI general secretary added that the stance of the Parliament on the Yemen issue was balanced. “The protection of Harmain Sharifain is the duty of every Muslim. Saudi Arabia has always extended a helping hand to the people of Pakistan. However, the better solution for the Yemen crisis is talks. Pakistan and Turkey can play an important role in arranging talks on the issue,” Liaqat Baloch opined.
JI provincial head Prof Mohammad Ibrahim stressed the need for unity among the Muslim Ummah. He urged the students of the seminaries to spread the message of Islam all over the world to counter the negative propaganda against it.
Provincial Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said, former MNA Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Maulana Altafur Rahman, Maulana Munawwar Shah, Maulana Mohammad Ismail and other JI leaders also addressed the function.
A resolution was passed on the occasion that urged the government to stop interference in the internal matters of seminaries, make the process of registration easy for religious schools and stop raids on madrassas in the guise of search operations.