People losing faith in present electoral system, says Siraj

LAHORE

Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has said the political leaders nurtured by dictatorship could not deliver democracy. Most of the faces in the so-called mainstream political parties are the same as were seen around the dictators during martial laws, the JI leader said while talking to a delegation of Sindh JUI-F at Mansoora on Monday led by JUI-F Shoora members Maulana Bashir Ahmad and Maulana Ishaq Leghari.  

Siraj-ul-Haq said the present electoral system was the continuation of the status quo and the masses could not expect any good from it. The polling stations were captured on the basis of wealth, he said and added the masses had never got an opportunity to exercise their vote freely nor were the real representatives of the masses allowed to reach the assemblies. He said electoral corruption had been going on since 1970 when the election results were altered and the country was split apart as a result.

He said the same elite had been ruling the masses with different political parties and dictatorships and after coming to power these people freely indulged in financial corruption. Those who returned to assembly by spending one billion, would plunder many times more from the public exchequer, and as a result, the general public would suffer. He said due to these factors, people were losing faith in the electoral system. He said democracy did not mean plundering the public money with impunity. 

The JI ameer said the government had only a little time to carry out electoral reforms but it was adopting delaying tactics, and it seemed the government had no intention to go for electoral reforms.

Majlis-e-Shoora: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) announced the names of the newly-elected members of its Majlis-e-Shoora (central decision making body) for the next three-year term. 

The announcement was made by JI Election Commission chief, Maulana Asadullah Bhutto, at a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Monday.

The new members of JI Shoora are: Balochistan: Abdul Mateen Akhundzada, Bashir Ahmed Mandai, Sindh: Hafiz Naeemur Rahman, Muhammad Husain Mehnati, Osama Razi, Dr Wasseh Shakir, Muneim Zafar, Syed Shahid Hashmi, Muhamamd Yunus Barai, Abdul Waheed Qureshi, Hafiz Lutfullah, Hafiz Saeed Dhamra, Mumtaz Husain Sehto, Khyber PK: Sabir Husain Awan, Dr Iqbal Khalil, Merajud Din Khan, Misbahullah, Dr Ataur Rahman, Muhammad Usman Khan, Maulana Asadullah Khan, Aizazul Malik Afkari, Syed Jehan Badshah, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Sahibzada Tariqullah, Muhammad Haneef, Faza-e-Subhan, Maulana Jamalud Din, Saeed Abbasi, Dr Tariq Shirazi, Prof Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, and Sardar Muhammad Khan.

Punjab: Zubair Farooq Khan, Eng Tahir Khan, Shamsur Rahman Swati, Prof Muhammad Waqas, Raja Muhammad Jawad, Muhammad Iaqbal Khan, Maulana Abdus Sattar, Dr Mubashir Ahmed Siddiqui, Javed Iqbal Cheema, Malik Tazeerul Hasan, Sardar Zafar Husain Khan, Mehbub-uz-Zaman Butt, Muhammad Azeem Randhawa, Mehr Bahadar Khan, Dr Zahid Sattar, Dr Ubaiduaah Gohar, Bilal Qudrat Butt, Hafiz Hameedud Din Awan, Dr Tariq Saleem, Ehsanullah Butt, Riaz Farooq Sahi, Zaighan Mugheera, Sheikh Attiqur Rahman, Anwarul Haq, Zikrullah Mujahid, Hafiz Salman Butt, Usman Ghani, Malik Shahid Aslam, Sarfaraz Khan, Dr Liaqat Ali Kausar, Dr Tahir Siraj, Asif Mehmud Akhwani, Aziz Lateef, Sheikh Muhammad Usman Farooq, Asghar Ali Gujjar, Dr Anwarul Haq, Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, Nasir Waleed Chaudhry.

Elected women members of JI Shoroa are: Balochistan: Mohtarama Sameena Saeed. Sindh: Attiya Nisar, Afshan Naveed, Aisha Munawwar and Ra’na Fazal, Punjab: Sakeena Shahid, Dr Rukhsana Jabeen, Humaira Tariq, Rafia Fatimah, and Khyber PK: Humaira Tayyeba.