Polls only way to put country on track: Siraj

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq has rejected the buzz about installing a technocrat caretaker setup for a year or more to stabilise economy before holding polls as a joke and said the elections are the only way forward to put the country on track.

Addressing a press conference at Mansoorah on Thursday, he emphasised the need for electoral reforms before the polls. He added elections without reforms will further aggravate the existing economic and political crises.

He expressed solidarity with the people of Balochistan and condemned the police crackdown on the Gwadar sit-in by the local people for the realisation of their just demands based on fundamental rights. He announced that JI will observe the day of solidarity with Balochistan people on Friday (today). He cautioned against the propaganda was being spread that the Gwadar sit-in was against the CPEC. “I want to make it clear that CPEC is crucial for the development of Pakistan, and the JI is fully supporting the project.”

Residents of Gwadar had been demanding their rights even before the idea of CPEC, he said, adding the government should listen to their demands and hold dialogue with them instead of using force against them, warning that force will further alienate them from the democratic and political process. The JI, he said, has never supported violence in politics.

He said the country was paying the price of the ill-conceived policies and visionless rules of the PPP, PDM and PTI governments.