Siraj cites local culture

LAHORE
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq said women had abstained from voting in by-election for PK 85 in line with local culture and there had been no understanding between political parties on the issue.
Speaking to the media here Friday, he said JI women workers had carried out an intensive election campaign and held scores of corner meetings. The JI chief pointed out that the average turnout of voters, both men and women, in the elections had been around 30 per cent although the exercise of voting rights was a national duty. He asked the government to enact a law under which abstaining from voting was made a crime.
He said that there must be something wrong with the election in NA-125 that had forced an election tribunal to order re-polling. Sirajul Haq reiterated his appeal to political parties to stop fighting among themselves and instead fight against problems of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, loadshedding and lawlessness facing the country. Referring to statements of the state security institutions that RAW and Mosad were involved in terrorism and subversive activities in the country, Sirajul Haq posed a question as to whose duty it was to foil the enemy designs and conspiracies. He said the rulers had completely failed to protect life, property and honour of citizens. He said the rulers were behaving like gods and had least regard for the constitution, law or merit. The rulers had no love for the country and all their wealth was abroad, he charged.
Sirajul Haq said the rulers’ worries were increasing with the proceedings of the Judicial Commission which showed there had been massive irregularities in the 2013 polls. He said after the victory of the JI from PK 95, Senator Zahid Khan should resign from the Senate if he was a Pushtoon. He said if the MQM did not agree with the statements of Altaf Husain, it should disown him. He said if the KP Chief Minister staged a sit-in at Islamabad for the rights of the province, he too would join him.