Country needs Islamic system of governance: JI chief

MINGORA: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) head Senator Sirajul Haq on Wednesday said Pakistan needed Islamic system of governance and not a presidential form of government.

He was speaking at the workers' convention here at the Grassy Ground. JI provincial head Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, district chief Muhammad Amin and other leaders of the party were present as well.

Sirajul Haq said exploitation of the nation had continued for the last 70 years, adding that the government was not different in approach and governance from previous ones. "The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership was criticizing Hafeez Sheikh and his economic policies when he was finance minister in Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s cabinet. In total frustration, they have now inducted Hafeez Sheikh to come up with economic plans," he said.

The JI chief said the PTI government was totally directionless in its plans and vision. He scoffed at the government for failure in legislation in the last nine months.

Sirajul Haq said the presidential form of the government was not the solution for the development of the state. The Islamic system is the only way out, he added. “The government has failed to deliver. Is it prosperity to take more loans and negotiate with International Monetary Fund (IMF)," he asked. The JI chief said that the "Child Marriage Restraint Bill was against the injunctions of Islam.

Addressing the gathering, Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said Pakistan came into being in the name of Islam and it was in the preamble of the Constitution that no legislation would ever be made against the Sharia. He said that JI would continue its struggle to make Pakistan a true and Islamic state. Efforts stressed to promote interfaith harmony