Role of wealth has been minimized in Senate election :Siraj ul Haq

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, and Senator-elect, Sirajul Haq, has said that for the first time, the members of the assemblies had foiled the efforts of those who had the expertise of returning to the Senate through the power of wealth.

Talking to the media after addressing the Friday congregation at Markaz e Islami, Peshawar, he  said, there might have been some cases of exchange of wealth in the Senate election, but even this money did not have the desired effect. He said in order to stop the use of riches in the Senate election, in future, the Senators should be elected through adult franchise like the general elections.

The JI chief urged the government to fulfill its commitment for setting up a Judicial Commission for probe into rigging, and added that delaying tactics in this respect would only add to the bitterness in the political atmosphere. He also urged the PTI to return to the assemblies. He said that all political forces would have to work together for ending the status quo and the exploitative system in the country.

Sirajul Haq  said that with his election to the Senate, the time of his trial had already started, and added that as member of the Senate, he would try his best for making Pakistan a welfare and prosperous state and also for the rights of the province.

He deplored that the Election Commission had not shown any seriousness in improving the electoral system and the Electoral Reforms Committee had not done any significant work in this field so far because of which those believing in politics of brief cases had also been quite active in the Senate election and several assembly members had stated that there had been efforts to purchase their vote.

Sirajul Haq said that the bureaucracy wanted to alter the route of the Kashgar-Gowadar economic corridor to serve its interests and added that this was conspiracy to make the project controversial like the Kalabagh dam project. He said that China had indicated that there would not be any alteration in the route in public interest.

The JI chief vowed to check those trying to deprive the Khyber P. people of their rights through terrorism and lawlessness and said that nobody would be allowed to usurp the resources of the province. He said the federal government had to pay Rs. 375 billion to the Khyber P.  He said when he was Finance Minister of the province, a tripartite committee had bound the federation to pay Rs. 110 billion as the first installment of the amount, to be followed by two other installments. However, he deplored that there had been no progress in this direction.

He said that federal government should fulfill its responsibility and make the payment forthwith.

He said that during the mass contact campaign beginning from April five, the JI would try that its message reached every nook and corner of the country.