JI chief Siraj ul Haq inquires after Allama Dr Tahir ul Qadri’s health

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Sirajul Haq, on Monday visited the residence of PAT Chairman Dr Tahir ul Qadri, at Model Town and enquired after his health. He was accompanied by JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch.

Later, while talking to the media in the presence of PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur,  Sirajul Haq said that the government would have to come to the negotiation table in the long run. He said it would be better if the talks were resumed forthwith and no such step was taken as could harm the country and the nation.

He said the protest rallies and public meetings were not likely to end up in the interference by the third force “because nobody would be ready to take on his shoulders the burden of Himalaya like problems”.

Sirajul Haq said that the Opposition played the role of a mirror for the government and a good ruler would correct himself in the light of the opposition’s criticism. Therefore, instead of breaking the mirror, the government should correct itself.

He said that the government had not fulfilled its commitment of setting up a  commission for electoral reforms, the reconstitution of the Election Commission and the judicial commission to probe into the rigging in the 2013 elections so far due to which the political crisis had prolonged.

The JI chief, who had been Finance Minister in the Khyber P., said he had wished that the governments coming into being after the 2013 elections should have competed with one another in the service of the masses. However, he said that the things had taken such a turn that the problems and worries of the masses had increased after the elections.

He said due to his efforts, Lahore did not turn into the battleground on 14thof August. He said the political Jirga had arranged talks for 37 times between the government, the PTI and the PAT and it was due their efforts, that the dharnas had ended peacefully in stages. However, he said, the government had not taken the issues decided at the talks seriously due to which the PTI was still on roads. He said that the PTI and the PAT had begun sit-ins and countrywide rallies and meetings to create political awakening among the masses. This was because Pakistan was a democratic country and such things were nothing new in a democratic set up.

In reply to a question, Sirajul Haq said that in a country where a sit=in had to be staged for the registration of an FIR of the murder of fourteen party workers, the situation of the implementation on the constitution and the law could well be imagined. To a question regarding the report of the Joint Investigation Team, he said the investigation should be in line with the demands of the aggrieved party.

The PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, welcomed the JI chief. He said the JI chief had played an important role in the setting up of the JIT and had been helpful to the PAT at every step. He said the Ameer, JIP had tried his best that the issues were resolved amicably but the government’s stubbornness ended up in the suspension of the talks.