The eponymous chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl on Wednesday reiterated his demand for general elections to be ‘transparent and fair,’ and to be held earlier than scheduled.
Talking to the media on his arrival at Karachi airport, Fazlur Rehman said he wants early elections but added that he didn’t expect completion of computerised voters’ lists by May this year.
“There is no possibility of completion of computerised voters’ lists by May, as stated by the election commission,” Fazl said.
To a question about the revival of a coalition of the religious right, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Fazl said that Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hassan should withdraw his demand of being the MMA president.
“Let the MMA be revived and then subsequently decide who should be its head,” he added.
Not ‘sticking’ to power
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Khursheed Shah said that Pakistan Peoples Party does not intend on ‘sticking’ to power and that all parties will be taken on board before announcing the schedule of elections.
Speaking to Express News in Islamabad, Shah said that the government will devise a strategy for ‘fair and just elections,’ and that the chief of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will be informed about every move. He said that this has been done in order to dispel the impression that the government intervenes in matters of public interest.
With additional input from PPI.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2012.
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