Siraj asks Imran to contact JI for conduct of free, fair elections

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Chief Sirajul Haq has said that JI was playing the role of real opposition. “We want free and fair elections,” he said, asking the PTI chairman, Imran Khan, to contact the JI, if the former prime minister wanted the election to be held in a free and fair manner.

He said the political parties should start a dialogue for electoral reforms and agree on polls through a system of proportional representation.

While addressing a press conference here on Thursday JI chief announced to hold a public rally in Islamabad on Sunday in a bid to push the government to give a roadmap to introduce Riba-free economy in light of the decision of the Federal Shariat Court.

He said that Pakistan was passing through the most difficult time in its history. The country’s economy was on the verge of collapse to the level that some analysts had started equalizing it to the situation in Sri Lanka, he said.

He said that people were not paying taxes due to corruption in government departments, only two percent of the elite had been capturing the resources of the country for decades. The successive governments had knocked the door of the IMF over years but the money failed to fix the economy, he said, adding the system could not be put on track in the presence of an interest-based economic model.

Pakistan, he said, would have to adopt the interest-free Islamic model of the economy. He said the Riba was prohibited in the Constitution and the Federal Shariat Court and Council of Islamic Ideology issued a clear verdict about it. But, he added, the Riba was flourishing in clear violation of the Constitution. He said the prevailing system was providing benefit to the ruling class and was the main cause of the deprivations of the major population and poverty in general. He said the JI would not sit silently until the rulers announced the elimination of Riba. He said the rulers should replace the current system with Zakat and Ushr.

Haq said the three parties failed to deliver and they must admit the fact. He said another tsunami hit the country after April 10 and it seemed the current one would also bring disaster, having no clues to fix the crises.

A bunch of feudal lords, mafias, and corrupt capitalists had been ruling over the country for decades, he said, adding they looted the wealth and resources and distributed deprivations and poverty among the people.

He said it was a corrupt system which was the root cause of the problems. The JI, he said, was fighting against the status quo and wanted real change.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022