Siraj hopes Fazl will agree to hold talks with Imran

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has said elections in the Punjab, ordered by the Supreme Court, had become controversial even before they were held and were likely to create more chaos than solve national problems. 

Elections must be held in the entire country on a single day since separate elections would prove not only costlier but would also increase the existing chaos and uncertainty instead of bringing stability and harmony to the nation, he said while addressing a press conference at Mansoora on Friday.

Siraj said no party would accept the poll results if conducted in only one province, adding that the JI was striving to bring about such elections that would be acceptable to all and held in a free and fair environment to allow the people to choose representatives freely.

Sirajul Haq said the JI was holding talks with other political parties to reach a consensus on the date for elections in the entire country and would speed up its efforts after Eid.

To a question, he said he would try to convince Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman to hold talks with former prime minister Imran Khan.

“Maulana Fazl is a veteran politician who has always adhered to democratic thinking by solving issues through negotiations and is definitely against anarchy and chaos in the country or the intervention of establishment in political matters,” he added.

Siraj said the establishment must not interfere in political matters and remain confined to the job for which it has taken oath. He said elections are a political matter that only politicians can decide about.

He said the JI is working on a single-point agenda of bringing together all political parties to hold elections on a single day.

The JI chief lamented that the judiciary was unconstitutionally and illegally indulging in political matters instead of solving the pending cases, which run into tens of thousands, depriving the masses of justice for decades.

He said the country was suffering from deep political, constitutional and economic crises as democratic institutions and political parties were up against one another, which was unprecedented in history. He said the masses were the ultimate sufferers, dying of hunger, unemployment and deprivation of basic needs.

Earlier, addressing the press conference, Sirajul Haq demanded immediate release of Gwadar Rights Movement (GRM) leader Maulana Hidayatur Rahman Baloch who, he said, has been in jail for 100 days in baseless cases lodged after clashes between protesters and law-enforcing agencies.

Siraj announced staging countrywide protests on May 1 for the release of Maulana Baloch and that he would himself lead the Gwadar protest, saying that the GRM leader had never given any statement against CPEC but was only demanding the basic rights of Gwadar people and implementation of the GRM agreement with the government.

He warned the government wanted to provoke Gwadar residents, which could jeopardise the multi-billion dollar CPEC, adding that the JI and local people were in favour of CPEC but only demanding their basic rights, including removal of check-posts and ban on border trade, drinking water and other basic needs, and imposing a ban on trawler mafia to allow the local fishermen to earn their livelihood.

He said the JI was committed to the rights of Gwadar people and would never back out of them.