Siraj wants consensus on general elections

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) ameer Sirajul Haq expressed concern over the rising conflict among political forces, warning that third force would capitalise on the clash of political forces.

The political forces should sit down to resolve the issues and develop consensus on national polls, he said while presiding over a meeting of central leadership at Mansoora Tuesday. He feared the growing friction among the political parties could lead them to a blind alley and ultimately pave the way for the third force to interfere in political matters.

He announced launching the party election manifesto on March 22 in City. Earlier, the JI had postponed the convention of ticket holders in Islamabad scheduled for March 14 for declaring the manifesto, because of the last date of filing nomination papers for Punjab Assembly elections on the same date. Siraj said that dragging politics into courts would also not be the solution to the problems. It had been observed that the decisions made in the courts created further ambiguity rather than solving the problems, he said. He said the PDM government failed to deliver in 11 months and it gifted the people with inflation, poverty and unemployment. He said if the former government of the PTI destroyed the country in four years, the incumbent one brought further instability.

The rulers, he said, targeted the poor at the directions of the IMF, imposing billions of rupees taxes on the masses. Now, he added, the government increased the electricity tariff by Rs15 per unit without paying any heed to the people’s problems. He said only the JI could bring stability and prosperity to the country. He demanded the election commission complete LG polls in Karachi.