Terming midterm polls unjustified, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) General Secretary Liaqat Baloch has urged the government to complete its term.
“There is no room for midterm polls in the Constitution. It is not known to us from where the term of midterm polls has come. The government should complete its tenure. However term of the government can be curtailed by making amendment in the Constitution. If any such amendment comes in the house, we will support it,” he said while talking to a group of journalists on Saturday.
He stressed government and Imran Khan will have to demonstrate flexibility in talks as flexibility leads to resolve problems.
He went on to say that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is at present a powerless institution and the complaints can be addressed only by empowering it. The ECP should be given right to hire and fire by delegating it powers equal to Supreme Court, he demanded.
All the four provincial members of ECP have become controversial and they should now step down voluntarily, he stressed.
To a question, he said no definition of rigging has been made so far. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sent a letter to Supreme Court for investigation into rigging but no reply has been received as yet.
Responding to another question, he said people want to see new faces and want change besides reforms. However, they don’t want to abandon politics of grouping. If any political party awards ticket to someone under pressure then people should not cast vote in favour of those who don’t fulfil requirements of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.
Baloch announced that JI would kick off mass contact campaign from Karachi on December, 25. JI Amir Sirajul Haq will announce future strategy therein, he added.
There is no 58 (2b) in place in the country that president dissolves the assemblies nor a uniform mandate is there in centre and provinces, he underlined. There is a split mandate in Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Punjab and FATA, he added. Mere slogans cannot send packing the governments nor the assemblies will be dissolved, he remarked.
He said that JI would participate in Gilgit-Baltistan polls and it is likely to forge electoral alliance with PML-N, Majlis-e- Wahdat ul Muslimin and JUI-F, he held.