Siraj for holding elections on time

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has lauded the commitment of Chief Justice Saqib Nisar for upholding the supremacy of the Constitution and democratic system, adding elections should be held on schedule as even a single day’s delay could bear serious consequence for the country and democracy.

Addressing a meeting of the party leadership at Mansoora on Tuesday, he demanded that the caretaker setup must be truly impartial. He expressed deep concern over increasing loadshedding in the country and said despite the tall claims of the rulers, loadshedding up to 18 hours a day was going on in the rural areas and from ten to twelve hours loadshedding in urban areas. This had made the lives of people a miserable. He said the government had failed to provide any relief to the general public from price spiral, poverty and unemployment.

He took strong exception to government plans to privatise country’s airports, saying the government was searching for the parties to sell out the airports. He said by intentionally making major airports a liability, rulers wanted to hand over these to local and international parties against the national interest and was bound to create serious security problems.

The meeting decided to participate in a big way in MMA convention at Islamabad on May 2. The meeting was attended by JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch, JI naib ameer Prof Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, Asadullah Bhutto, Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, Rashid Naseem, Deputy Secretaries General Muhammad Asghar and Azhar Iqbal Hasan, JI spokesman Amirul Azeem and JI KPK ameer Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan and senior minister in KPK government, Inayatullah Khan.

Meanwhile, JI Punjab has proposed three names for the caretaker chief minister of the province including former chief justice Lahore High Court Justice Mian Allah Nawaz, former federal secretary Education Dr Safdar Mehmud and former federal secretary Industries Khizar Hayat Gondal.

The names have been decided by JI parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar in consultation with JI Punjab ameer Mian Maqsood Ahmed.