Govt must complete its tenure, says Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat Islami ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said he had not judged anything concrete suggesting that the country was going to witness early elections.
The JI ameer said his party’s embarking upon an ambition plan to prepare for next elections was basically aimed at selecting, grooming and fielding genuine and honest political workers as candidates to fulfil the expectations of the masses.
He was talking to The News on Tuesday regarding his chairing a series of high level meetings of party office-bearers for chalking out detailed plan to contest next elections and select potential candidates for them. Sirajul Haq said although the ruling elite, through their bad governance and corruption, had been pushing the country towards a situation where it seemed the assemblies and government could be dismissed before time. Yet, he said, he personally wished that present set up must complete its tenure so that the country could not have any more political martyrs in whose names the corrupt and professional politicians could befool the voters again by highlighting their ‘victimisation’.
He said JI believed in peaceful political struggle for bringing about Islamic revolution through ballot power. However, his party is different from other traditional political parties which were run on the pattern of family limited companies and feudal/ capitalist organisations.
He said almost all candidates of other political parties were either capitalists, industrialists and feudal lords, or those known for their criminal records. But JI had always fielded honest people in the past and was embarking upon a plan to groom such candidates much before the election schedule so that they could be fielded in the electoral arena fully prepared for serving the masses. He said JI candidates would fulfil the conditions set by articles 62 and 63 of the constitution and would be available all the time for the voters and masses for being held accountable.
Sirajul Haq said at present all the major political parties were in power in all the four provinces and in the centre, and he sincerely wished they should have performed in their domains to serve the masses. However, he said, unfortunately the rulers were not interested in capitalising on this golden chance to serve the masses and keen to plunder public money and fill up their pockets. He warned that if bad governance continued, the next elections would become a judgment day for the ruling elite.
To a question, he said JI’s exercise of selecting honest people for contesting next elections was about to be completed but it was premature to declare the names of the candidates being finalised for next elections and it would be made public at a suitable time.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Sirajul Haq condemned the massacre of hundreds of Syrian citizens by the Syrian army in Duma city. He said Asad had massacred hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians during last four years.