JI aims to get its ameer elected as senator

PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will make all-out efforts to get its chief Sirajul Haq elected to the Senate in the upcoming election for the Upper House of the Parliament in March.
Though the party doesn’t have the required numerical strength in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to get Sirajul Haq elected as Senator, it will look to strike a bargain with its coalition partners, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), for the purpose.
The 52-year old Sirajul Haq is currently Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) from his native Lower Dir district. His party wants him to be in the Senate so that he could play an active role as a legislator in the centre.
“Sirajul Haq is JI’s candidate for the Senate election,” Mohammad Iqbal, a spokesperson for the JI chief, told The News.
The MPAs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would elect 12 senators on general, technocrat, women and minority seats in the forthcoming Senate election. Half the members of the Senate are going to retire after completing their six-year term.
The JI is the second major coalition partner in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. It has eight members in the 124-member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. They include Sirajul Haq, Muzaffar Said, Inayatullah, Malik Behram, Habibur Rahman, Saeed Gul, Mohammad Ali and Rashida Zafar.
Sirajul Haq quit the office of senior minister for finance when he was elected the JI head. Presently Muzaffar Said, Habibur Rahman and Inayatullah are representing the JI in the provincial cabinet.
Sirajul Haq was senior minister in the PTI-led government till July last year when he decided to quit the cabinet and concentrate on his responsibilities as the party chief. He was replaced by Muzaffar Said as finance minister. The JI chief had earlier quit the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government, which ruled the province from 2002-2008 as the senior minister when he was elected the provincial head of his party.
He made the announcement in Bajaur Agency, where he went a day after a drone hit a seminary in Damadola village. As many as 82 persons mostly students were killed in the drone strike.
Sirajul Haq was elected the central chief of the JI in March last year. He continued working as the JI chief and senior minister for a few months, but later he decided to quit the cabinet.
Sirajul Haq grew in stature when he made efforts to heal the rift between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who has been at loggerheads with the federal government over alleged rigging in the May 2013 election.