JI ready for talks with opposition for Senate polls

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan on Wednesday said the door for negotiations with opposition parties were open for the Senate polls as the party had already fielded four candidates though it has a representation of only three members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Speaking at a news conference here, he criticized the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for awarding tickets for the Upper House to people whose names were mentioned in the Panama Papers.

He said that ‘ATMs’ being used for the purchase of votes in the Senate election.

He said sugar, flour and cigarette mafias were dominant in the Senate elections as the ruling party has given tickets to such candidates. “Since when Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has become a member of PTI?” he asked.

He also spoke about the video about Senate elections which went viral on social media and said that the video scandal should be probed by the top judiciary.

Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser should also be interrogated for their alleged involvement in the video scandal, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan demanded.

Flanked by JI provincial secretary general Abdul Wasi and deputy secretary general Sohaibuddin Kakakhel, the JI leader said that the incumbent government has pushed all the national institutions to the brink of destruction.

The government employees were staging protests, he said, adding that the surge in prices of daily items had made life of the common people miserable.

“The prices of lifesaving drugs have been increased by 500 percent,” he said, adding that the economy had been literally handed over to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The government has also failed to combat the coronavirus pandemic as only 38,000 people in the country could be administered the anti-corona vaccine,” he said.

He criticized Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad for his remarks about use of force against protesting employees. “The interior minister’s statement that expired teargas was used against the protesting government employees, which is shameful,” he added.