JI's Siraj-ul-Haq for polls reforms to avert rigging

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has demanded all the political parties to hold a debate on strengthening and making independent the election commission and the judiciary in the country.

It was high time that government and opposition should enforce election reforms to avoid rigging, malpractices in the next polls and the resulting political confrontation, he said in a statement from Mansoora on Monday.

Besides, Siraj demanded establishment of an independent and powerful accountability institution with the consultation of all stakeholders to purge the nation of corruption menace. He said the country was not moving ahead due to the wrong policies of the government. He said the PTI had claimed that it would start a war against corruptions after coming into power. He alleged that the ruling party not only failed to nab the corrupt mafia, it showed pathetic performance in all other fields of governance. The campaign against corrupts left an impression of political victimisation, he said. Siraj said those who were named in Panama Papers were part of the government and opposition and neither the courts nor the NAB ever asked them about the money laundering. He said none of the governments in past became much unpopular in such a short timeframe as that of the present regime. He said people were running out of patience due to skyrocketing inflation and unemployment and were ready to take to the streets but the government seemed unconcerned and unmoved to address the problems. He said the government which seemed directionless and confused should sit together with opposition parties to bring the country out of crisis.

Meanwhile, JI naib ameer Liaqat Baloch alleged the government for playing politics by disregarding the serious health of political opponents like Nawaz Sharif. Addressing a meeting, he said Pakistan was a fortress of Islam and the country could not afford political and economic instability.

education system: Jamaat Islami (JI) has alleged that the PTI government is also destroying the public sector education system like previous governments to benefit the costly private schools promoting secular, foreign values in the dominantly Muslim society and a country established to practice Islam. Nearly 23 percent children of school going age in Pakistan are deprived of schools education because their parents cannot afford to send them to schools, exposing tall electoral claims of the government to provide affordable education for all citizens, said JI Secretary General Ameerul Azim while addressing a ceremony at Street Children School near Thokar Niaz Baig here on Monday, which is providing quality education to a large number of poor, needy children free of cost run by a social welfare group of JI under the banner of Paigham-e-Taleem Welfare Foundation.