Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq has said that the womenfolk had abstained from voting in the by-election for PK 85 (Lower Dir-II) in line with the local culture and there had been no understanding between the political parties on the matter.
Speaking at the prize distribution ceremony of organised by private schools under the aegis of Islami Nizamat-e-Ta’leem, (Directorate of Islamic Education) on Friday, Sirajul Haq said, however, that the JI women workers had carried out an intensive election campaign and held scores of corner meetings.
He pointed out that the average turnout of voters- both men and women- in the elections had been around thirty per cent, although exercising the right to vote was a national duty. He counselled the government to enact a law under which abstaining from voting was made a crime.
The JI chief said that there must be something wrong with the election in NA 125 that had constrained the Election Tribunal to order re-polling. However, he said, that the bed upon which the government was lying had lost one of its supports.
Sirajul Haq reiterated his appeal to the political parties to stop fighting among themselves, instead fight against the problems of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and load shedding and lawlessness facing the country.
Referring to the statements of the state institutions that RAW and MOSAD were involved in terrorism and subversive activities in the country, the JI chief posed a question as to whose duty it was to foil the enemy designs and conspiracies. He said that the rulers had completely failed to protect the life, property and honour of the citizens. He said the rulers were behaving like gods and had no regard for the constitution, law or merit. The rulers have no love for this country as all their wealth is lying abroad, he added.
Sirajul Haq declared that if the JI came to power, it would allocate maximum budget for education and the children of a poor worker would get quality education.
He said that the west had placed gun and Kalashnikov in the hands of our children while their own children had pens and books in their hands. Half of the Muslim world was in a state of war under a conspiracy hatched by the west, he said, and added that this conspiracy could be foiled by providing best education to our youth.