JI chief calls for holding simultaneous elections

PESHAWAR: Stressing the need for general elections at the federal and provincial levels, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq said on Saturday that the country cannot afford separate polls.

Talking to the media here, the JI leader said that an emergency, martial law or presidential system was no solution to the problems faced by the country.

“Even if polls are conducted in Punjab, no-one will accept its results,” he added.

He said the flawed policies of the government had made lives miserable for people during the holy month of Ramazan due to the unbearable hike in prices of daily items. Some 20 people have lost their lives in the struggle for getting free flour. It has become difficult to breathe freely in the country, he said.

He said the governments of both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Democratic Movement had made the institutions controversial. The parliament has declared not to comply with the decision of the Supreme Court while the decision of the apex court has been opposed by the judges of the same institution, he said.

He said the chief justice added to the problems of the Supreme Court through the suo moto. The problem can be resolved by constituting full court even now, he observed.

The chief justice pushed himself and his institution into a quagmire by not convening full court, he said.

Flanked by Member National Assembly Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and others, the JI chief said that foreign exchange of the country was rapidly dropping, while the government has no plan to return the loans of the International Monetary Fund.