Fix election spending by candidates, parties: Siraj

LAHORE

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has demanded that spending of every party and candidate in the elections should be fixed so that the common citizens could also contest the polls.

He said the country is being ruled by the agents of the East India Company who had secured big favours from the British rulers for their treachery against the Muslims.

Addressing the central parliamentary advisory council of the JI at Mansoora, he said a movement similar to the historic Pakistan Movement was imperative to free the nation from the hold of these slaves of the world imperialism. 

The JI chief expressed deep grief over the massacre in the Syrian city Halab and deplored the silence of the Muslim world and the United Nations in this regard.

He said the historic city of four million people had been turned into ruins and even women and children were not allowed to leave. Hospitals and educational institutions were also targeted. 

Sirajul Haq said the rulers had no moral ground to remain in power after the surfacing of the allegations of corruption against them.

He said it was an irony that a motorcycle rider was detained for not having documents of his motorbike but the politicians who did not have documents of their properties worth trillions were still clinging to their offices.

He said the ruler were carrying on their publicity campaign out of public exchequer under the cover of opening ceremonies of development projects and advertisements worth billions were being dished out every day. 

However, he said, the general public was demanding accountability of the loot and plunder. He said the rulers should not be under the impression that the Panama Leaks issue would be thrown to the winds and they would be let free.

He said the present electoral system did not guarantee fair, free and transparent elections in 2018.

Under the present electoral system, the electorate was unable to vote freely, the elections were a game of wealth under which the wealthy and elite had been commanding   public opinion through coercion and rigging. 

A few elite families had been purchasing the loyalties of the administration and the police.

Due to these weaknesses, the wealthy were investing in politics to protect their illegal wealth and to make more money. 

He demanded that in order to overcome these weaknesses, the spending of every party and candidate in the elections should be fixed so that the common citizens could also contest the polls.