PTI govt laying foundation of fraudulent elections, says Siraj

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has said the government has brought destruction to the entire system merely on the basis of simple majority, setting foundation of fraud in the coming election through electronic rigging.

“The democratic process of consultation was ignored to introduce the so-called electoral reforms,” he said in a statement Wednesday, adding the government act will bring further political crisis and divide in the country in future. The ruling party, he said, adopted the method to bulldoze amendments to the Election Act, 2017 in a joint session of the Parliament seeing its unpopularity and defeat in the next polls.

The bills passed in the joint session, he said, had nothing to do with the interests of the masses. Meanwhile, addressing the “Student Rights Convention” at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, he asked the government to fulfill its promise and lift ban on student unions. He demanded the government fix five percent of the GDP for education. He said the parents could not afford the universities and colleges fee of their children due to costly education.

The government, he said, snatched bread from poor, and books and pen from students. He said the anti-education policies of the present rulers were much visible as the government made 23 percent decrease in higher education budget.

The NTS, he said, plagued the education system. A nation, he said, could not be built on the basis of atomic bomb and weapons but on education. Thousands of students marched in demonstrations from across the country to reach Islamabad and demanded the right to form unions which was taken away in 1984 by military dictator Ziaul Haq. Islami Jamiat Talba organised the event and also demanded the prime minister house and governor houses turned into universities and libraries.

The JI chief paid tributes to the struggle of students and said they were only demanding their constitutional and democratic rights. He said the perpetual governments including the incumbent one ignored the students’ demands, displaying their anti-education mindset.

He said the prime minister never fulfilled its single promise so far. Millions of youth were unemployed and inflation and poverty turned the life of common man miserable. He appealed to the students and youth of Pakistan to be part of JI struggle to transform the country into Islamic welfare state.