Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hasan has said that the JI did not believe in highlighting ethnic or regional prejudices for electoral gains.
Addressing a convention of the JI candidates for national and provincial assemblies from the Punjab at Mansoora on Sunday, he said that regional, ethnic and racial prejudices were being raised in the country for political considerations. However, the JI would mobilise the masses from positive and constructive viewpoints and not through negative slogans.
The convention was organised by the Punjab JI. The JI chief said in the past, the masses had been electing corrupt people time and again who had plunged the country and the nation into a quagmire of problems and added that only the honest and competent leadership of the JI could steer the nation safely.
Later, while replying to questions from reporters, Hasan said PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had not fulfilled many of his promises. He said the PML-N was not prepared to resign from the assemblies for the supremacy and the protection of the constitution.
To another question, the JI leader said even if Yousaf Raza Gilani had the right of appeal against the Supreme Court judgment, morality required him to step down and then file the appeal. His sticking to the office of the prime minister was unconstitutional and immoral.
Asked about MMA revival, he said that in spite of the pressure from the MMA parties, Maulana Fazlur Rahman had not distanced himself from the PPP and President Zardari, instead, the maulana was clinging to the Kashmir Committee and his party men were also holding several other high offices. As such, the matter of the revival was both closed and open.
He said Maulana Fazlur Rahman had been repeatedly asked to realise his past blunders and not to repeat these again, but the maulana was not ready even to listen. Therefore, the JI could not be thrown at the mercy of the maulana.
Speaking on the occasion, JI Punjab chief Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, said the JI had nominated its candidates all over the Punjab and hoped to put up candidates on all seats. He directed the candidates to start preparations for the elections through mass contact and redressing their grievances in every sphere.