‘JI to go to any extent to safeguard its mandate’

The Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, has vowed that the JI would go to any extent to safeguard its mandate as the people of Karachi had expressed their trust in the JI against the feudal mindset prevailing in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and other political forces in the arena.

He expressed these views while addressing a press conference held at the Idara Noor-e-Haq, the JI headquarters in Karachi, on Monday. He was accompanied by JI leaders Munim Zaffar, Arif Sultan, Saleem Azhar, Younus Barai, Imran Shahid and Sohaib Ahmed.

Explaining the JI's next course of action, he said the JI hoped that it would retrieve nine union committees on February 2 as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was expected to give a verdict against a plea filed by the JI for rectification of polling results on the basis of form 11.

He added that the JI would approach all the available platforms, including the ECP and election tribunals, to rectify the results of another 25 to 30 UCs as there was strong evidence of rigging there.

He demanded that the ECP issue date for elections in the union committees where polling had been delayed due to demise of candidates so that the UC chairmen, town heads and mayor could take oath and start discharging their duties.

Rehman said the JI's mayor would bring an end to enormous corruption prevailing in the local bodies with naked support by the corrupt mafia in the government. He added that the JI was trying to take all political parties on board to have a mayor unanimously elected.

He stated that the JI wanted to develop a consensus among all the political parties for the sake of progress and development of the city. The party had the ability to take along with it all political parties for a joint cause despite ideological and political differences, he added.

Rehman reiterated his demands to empower the local government setup in accordance with the Article 140-A of the Constitution and as per the agreement signed between the PPP government in Sindh and JI.

He also asked the government to stop the process of installing blue-eyed officers in the departments that were supposed to be run by the local government. The JI leader also lambasted the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government in Pakistan over skyrocketing inflation, particularly the recent hike in petroleum prices.

He said the PDM had taken over the government with the promise to address the issue of inflation but instead of delivering on its promise, the PDM government itself was propelling the inflation. He said the JI supremo, Sirajul Haq, had already announced a countrywide campaign against the rising inflation.