PM’s appearance before JIT won’t be a favour: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has said the prime minister’s appearance before the JIT won’t be a favour to the country and nation as nobody should be above the law in a civilised society. The PML-N government was trying to project the PM’s decision to appear before the JIT as a historic event as if the premier was going to achieve something big, he said while commenting on the PML-N minister’s stance on the issue on Monday. 

The JI leader said eminent rulers in the history had been appearing before the courts on being summoned. He said the supremacy of the law was the sign of a civilised society and a nation could not progress in the absence of the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. The societies which lacked the rule of law suffered from anarchy.

Sirajul Haq called upon the election commission to ensure electoral reforms before the 2018 elections. He said the election commission should not wait for the announcement of the election schedule as had been the practice in the past. He said that massive reforms were required in the electoral system to minimise the use of wealth in the polls. He said the wealthy people spent millions to win the elections and on reaching the assemblies, they plundered billions through corruption. He said it was mainly because of these ill practices that the common man had lost interest in the elections and the turn-out in the polls was lowering.

Meanwhile, JI secretary general Liaqat Baloch, while speaking at a ceremony on the world Orphan Day, said the number of orphan children in the world, especially in Pakistan was continuously increasing. He said there was no organised system for education and health facilities for over four million orphan children in the country and their future was uncertain. The function was also addressed by Begum Samia Raheel Qazi, Rana Mashhood, and others.

Liaqat Baloch said PM now had no option except appearing before the JIT. He said the JI from the very beginning, had been stressing upon the PM to vacate his office until the investigations were over but the premier had not bothered for the prestige of the country.