Govt should fulfill promise on judicial commission: Siraj

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul Haq has said that the government should constitute the judicial commission on election rigging and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators would return to the assemblies.
He said that members of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly had slapped those who wanted to purchase votes in the Senate elections and buried the politics of horse-trading after electing their parties’ nominees.
Addressing a news conference after being elected as a member of the Senate, he said that reforms in the election process were important and, therefore, reforms committee of parliament should speed up its work. Siraj said election for the Senate could also be held directly, therefore, steps should be taken to completely block the doors on the use of money in politics.
Siraj, while thanking members of KP Assembly and people for electing him as a member of parliament, said that he along with other members of the Senate from KP would strive hard for the rights of the province.
He said that PTI and the government had welcomed fresh suggestions of political Jirga and, therefore, now was the time that the government should announce the formation of judicial commission and remove the confusion. This, he said, would pave the way for the return of PTI members to the National Assembly. About the Kashghar-Gwadar Economic Corridor, Siraj said that the government shouldclearly announce that no change would be made in the route to remove reservations of KP and Balochistan as people of both the provinces had pined high hopes on this corridor.
Later, speaking to newsmen the JI chief demanded that the government should ensure that Rs375 billion of electricity net profit was provided to KP as it was the right of the province. “We are not asking for charity,” he said.
He deplored that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECO) had not shown any seriousness in improving the electoral system and the Electoral Reforms Committee had not done any significant work in this field so far because of which those believing in politics of brief cases had also been quite active in the Senate elections and several assembly members had stated that there had been efforts to purchase their votes.
The JI chief vowed to check those trying to deprive the KP people of their rights through terrorism and lawlessness and said that nobody would be allowed to usurp the resources of the province. He said the federal government had to pay Rs375 billion to KP. He said when he was finance minister of the province, a tripartite committee had bound the federation to pay Rs110 billion as the first installment of the amount, to be followed by two other installments. However, he deplored that there had been no progress in this direction. He said during the mass contact campaign beginning from April 5, the JI would try that its message should reach every nook and corner of the country.