JI Ijtimah: Siraj calls for overhaul of electoral system

JI chief demands proportionate representation for parties in the next election

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has called for an overhaul of the country’s electoral system and demanded the next election be held on the basis of proportionate representation for all political parties.

“The nation has lost confidence in the existing election mechanism which, in fact, has become a system of selection. It has become necessary to restore the sanctity of the ballot,” said Haq while presenting his party’s agenda at the start of a three-day Ijtima at Minar-e-Pakistan on Friday.

Criticising the country’s feudal system, he said, “The JI will take back the estates gifted by British colonialists to their cronies, and distribute them among landless tillers.”

He added that if voted to power, the JI would announce an unemployment allowance for the jobless youth; introduce a uniform education system for all; abolish the interest-based banking system; and grant full protection to minority communities.

“The JI will ensure workers and peasants get a share in the profits of industries and land production, respectively. All those having a monthly income below Rs30,000 will be provided flour, sugar, tea, pulses and rice on subsidised rates,” he added.

He said the national language would be made the medium of instruction at educational institutions. “The Islamic government would provide free treatment to the patients of diseases of heart, hepatitis, cancer and kidney,” he said. The establishment of an Islamic welfare state is inevitable, he said, adding that those opposing the Islamic system were, in fact, betraying the Constitution of Pakistan.

Sirajul Haq  presented himself for accountability and said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and all former premiers should also offer themselves for accountability.

He also called for an end to sectarianism which has polarised the nation. “Prayer leaders and clerics across the country should play their due role for the unity of the nation, rising above the differences of sects,” he added.

He strongly condemned the recent lynching of a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan, Kasur, saying that such an incident could not take place in an Islamic state.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2014.