JI not interested in Nawaz’ return, says Siraj

RAWALPINDI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul Haq on Saturday said the JI is not interested in return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to the country.

“We are not interested in this issue whether Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan from the UK as we feel that there is no difference among the PMLN, the PTI and the PPP,” Siraj said while addressing the participants of a breakfast hosted in his honour by the JI candidate for the National Assembly election, Raza Ahmad Shah. He pointed out that three political parties and military leaders have ruled the country time and again but they have not been able to change the living conditions of the masses and provide any relief to them.

Siraj and other JI leaders are currently on a three-day visit to the Rawalpindi district as a part of party’s organizational matters and mass contact campaign.

Siraj reiterated his demand for holding accountable all those Pakistanis whose names were mentioned in the Panama Papers. “Without action against all these people, we cannot say that there is an impartial accountability in the country,” he said. He maintained that his party believes in equal distribution of wealth among people without any discrimination that is the basic condition for an Islamic welfare state. He told party leaders and workers that the Jamaat-e-Islami would award party tickets for local bodies and general elections on merit unlike other parties which consider candidates on the basis of their wealth. In this connection, he said the JI has decided to field 22 candidates for the Rawalpindi cantonment elections.

Speaking on the Afghan issue, he said the JI leadership would ask the Pakistan government to continue efforts for peace in Afghanistan. “It is a big achievement of Taliban to defeat the US and its allied forces and now it is our effort that a peaceful solution to the crisis should be their priority,” he said, adding that they are in contact with the Taliban leadership, making it clear that they should not attempt to conquer Kabul or any other city at gunpoint.