Siraj for promoting democratic culture

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has said true democracy will flourish in the country only when democratic institutions will more powerful than individuals.

Political parties must practice complete democracy in their ranks to promote democratic culture in the country, Siraj said while talking to a delegation headed by the newly-elected ameer JI central Punjab, Amirul Azeem, at Mansoorah on Monday.

Sirajul Haq said political parties having undemocratic and dictatorial mindset had done the greatest harm to democracy in the country and the parties being run by dynasties, revolving around personalities and having ethnic and regional outlook, were the greatest hurdle in the way of enforcing democracy. He said families controlling the affairs of some parties were not allowing democratic culture to get roots in the country and common political worker was not allowed to rise to higher offices. The son or daughter of the party head would head the party after the father to be followed by the grandson or grand-daughter. He said that the political parties representing any region, sect or ethnicity, participating in the electoral process would have to promote national outlook in their ranks.

Sirajul Haq pointed out that prior to recent elections, JI had proposed that elections of all political parties should be held before the elections under the supervision of the Election Commission. However, this proposal was not considered seriously. Sirajul Haq said JI had the distinction of having a strong election system and all its office-bearers were elected through secret ballot. He said elections of the provincial and district heads of the JI all over the country had been completed during the current month and the new office bearers had assumed their responsibilities. However, he said, there had been no incident of leg pulling to secure any party office. Meanwhile, in a statement JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch demanded the government announce support price of all major crops in order to protect the interest of the growers.