CEC to take action on horse trading in Senate Elections:Liaqat Baloch

Lahore: Acting Ameer of the Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Liaqat Baloch, has called upon the Election Commission to proceed against those who had made the Senate elections as a game of making money. He was talking to the media at al-Markaz, Chiniot on Sunday.

Liaqat Baloch said that all the political and religious parties of the country were unanimous on the National Action Plan against terrorism however it must be implemented without discrimination. He said that raid on the mosques and madrissahs in this respect were condemnable.

He said the government had authorized the police to implement the NAP which was a joke. This   would provide an excuse to the police to make money. He stressed upon the Punjab government to reviews its policy in this respect. He said that action was being taken only against mosques and madrissahs while the terrorists were active as ever and were attacking mosques and Imambargahs. He said this implied the failure of the intelligence agencies.

The JI acting chief said the silence of the PPP leadership in Sindh and the PM(N) government in the centre after the JIT report on the Baldia Town factory tragedy was meaningful. This showed that there was a compromise with the party responsible for the burning alive of nearly 269 factory workers as would be a scar on the face of democracy. He recalled that in the declaration of the APC at London, the MQM had been termed as a fascist party and the signatory parties had agreed not to take the MQM as an ally. However, now efforts were being made to save the MQM and the appointment of a fresh JIT team was a step in that direction.

Meanwhile, Jamaat e Islami spokesman Amir ul Azeem has stressed upon the Election Commission to take notice of the reports of sale and purchase of the Assembly members for the Senate elections and adopt necessary steps to ensure fair, free and transparent elections for the upper house.

In a statement here on Sunday, he said that according to the media reports, the bid for each assembly member in the Senate polls had crossed tens of millions. He said that the Senate was the highest law making body of the country. In the given situation, only such capitalists and wealthy people would be returned to the Upper House as would simply be interested in amassing billions and would have least concern for the supreme interest of the country and the nation. As a result, the Senate would turn into a club of the rich solely interested in plundering national wealth with both hands.

The JI Spokesman said that after the large scale allegations of rigging in the general elections of 2013 and the reservations of all the political parties over the election results, the Election Commission should have take necessary measures to make the elections at all levels reliable. However, this had not been done because of which the reputation of the Election Commission was at stake.

He expressed the hope that the political parties would direct their assembly members to remain aloof from such mafias so that the people involved in black money did not get a chance to sneak into one of the most prestigious institutions of the country.

He stressed that the CEC should explain the position of the Election Commission on this score through the media.