Siraj says two Senate seats for Islamabad against parity formula

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has opposed the election of two Senate seats from the federal capital and said that it was against the spirit of parity among provinces.

Addressing a select gathering of experts from different walks of life at Mansoora on Sunday, the JI Ameer said that the parity formula aimed to raise the federation on a strong footing. However, the present quota of two Senate seats from Islamabad adversely affected the constitution of the Senate. He, therefore, demanded that the present procedure of electing two senators from Islamabad should be changed and the elected assembly members from all provinces should be given equal weight, so that the sense of discrimination in the provinces on the score could be eliminated. Meanwhile, while addressing the concluding session of the JI central workshop at Mansoora, he said it was tragic that secular and liberal elements holding power in the country were tolerating the molestation of children like Zaiban and Asma but were not ready to accept the enforcement of Shariah. He said that if the punishments under the Shariah ( Hudood) were enforced, crimes like murders, dacoities, thefts, and molestation of innocent girls could be stopped. Sirajul Haq said that Shariah did not only mean punishment, it also laid down an elaborate system for the look after of orphans, widows and the elimination of oppressive economic system founded on interest. Shariah also provides for a uniform education system instead of the present class-based education system besides the provision of basic health facilities and employment to citizens, and the dispensation of inexpensive and quick justice to the masses. He said that Pakistan had been achieved in the name of Islam but during the last seventy years, the Islamic system was not allowed to function in the country for a single day. Sirajul Haq said that the JI would make farm workers and industrial workers shareholders in the profits of agricultural and industrial incomes to end their exploitation by feudal lords and industrialists.

Baloch urges accountability for all: Jamaat-e -Islami Secretary General Liaqat Baloch has said that the use of force in the name of the Shariah was not permissible. Addressing JI workers convention here, the JI secretary general said that under the 1973 constitution, no laws contrary to the Holy Quran and the Sunnah could be enacted. He said the minorities and their rights were fully protected in the constitution. No group or party is allowed to thrust its viewpoint on the nation nor any armed struggle against the state and state institutions could be allowed, he added. He said that taking up arms in the name of language, region and nationalities was not permissible and all biases and forms of terrorism were against the Shariah. Liaqat Baloch said that the JI had rendered huge sacrifices for the rule of law and the supremacy of the judiciary, adding it wanted the courts to establish the supremacy of the constitution and the law. He said the rulers who dared to go against the constitution could be punished only by the judiciary and none else. The JI leader stressed upon the state institutions that the process of accountability should not be restricted to a single family. Instead, all those who had plundered public money and built unlawful properties within the country and abroad should be subjected to accountability, he said. Liaqat Baloch said that in the present situation, it was imperative to forge unity on the issue of the Khatme Nubuwwat and for the enforcement of the system laid down under the Quran and the Sunnah. He was confident that the designs of the liberal and secular forces would be foiled.