SC urged to help evolve poll consensus

Sirajul Haq says 18 Pakistanis hold Rs4,000 billion in their bank accounts

ISLAMABAD:

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Amir Sirajul Haq said on Monday that the Supreme Court should bring all stakeholders together and forge a consensus on the date of election in the country.

Addressing a press conference in the federal capital, Haq said that the JI would contest the next elections on its own, claiming that politics was no more than a game for other political parties.

“The solution to the country's problems lies in fair and transparent elections. The Jamaat-e-Islami has always struggled for this,” Haq told reporters. “We will go to the polls with our flag and under our election symbol,” he added.

The JI chief said that his party had made alliances but it had come to the conclusion that they all considered politics a game or business. “If politics is a game for the PTI and business for the PML-N, the JI considers it a service,” he added.

“Whether it is PDM or the PTI in government, the corrupt elite will continue to rule the roost. These people [the current government] has imposed Rs170 billion in new taxes on the poor because of the IMF but it is not willing to cut its privileges.”

Speaking about other issues, Haq said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari mostly remained abroad, visiting even the countries no-one ever heard of but the place he did not go was Khairpur where private jails operated.

“Kidnapping for ransom is rampant, 46 people are in prison of cruel landlords in the riverine area. Most of them belong to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) who had gone to Karachi for labour and were kidnapped from there.’

About the problems of the masses, the JI chief said that former prime minister Imran Khan used to say that peace could only be found in the grave. “Now, only the name of the prime minister has changed. The policies remain the same.”

Sirajul Haq claimed that he had a list of 18 Pakistanis, who held Rs4,000 billion or around $15.5 billion in their bank accounts. "Our country's institutions are helpless in recovering the money from these people," he said.

Judges, generals, bureaucrats, and politicians should give sacrifice for the betterment of the economy. "If flour is being sold at Rs160 per kg, how could a head of a family feed 12 members?" he asked.

JI Deputy Amir Mian Aslam, Secretary General Amirul Azeem and Amir Islamabad Nasrullah Randhawa were also present in the press conference.