LAHORE, NOV 13 (DNA) – Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq has said that political parties should initiate a dialogue on wide-ranging electoral reforms for transparent and accountable election system to improve the quality of future polls in the country.

Presenting an 11-point charter of demand during a press conference at Mansoora on Friday, he said Pakistan needed civilian supremacy and democratic system based on the founding principles of this country.

“A PDM leader held the military establishment responsible for the rigging in General Elections of 2018. The prime minister endorsed his [PML-N supremo’s] statement by also admitting establishment’s interference in the polls.

“What will be use of elections if the blame game continues in the future,” he questioned, asking the political parties to sit together on one point agenda of electoral reforms. There was an urgent need to end the culture of dragging institutions into politics and also curtail the institutions’ interference into political matter.

Sirajul Haq said Islamic system and interest free economy was the only way forward to put the country on track. He highlighted the need for bringing reforms in education and health sectors, saying millions of poor could not afford sending their children to schools because of expensive schooling. Similarly, he regretted, government health sector was deteriorating with every day passing, which needed wide ranging reforms focusing poor and lower middle class benefits.

The JI chief said a free and independent media was a vital component for the development of Pakistan. The present and previous governments, he added, made interferences to curb the media freedom and put it under their control.

The JI, he said, wanted the media should be allowed to work independently. He also called for across the board accountability and powerful justice system. He said rulers had put the country’s sovereignty at stake by deepening economic crisis.

The rulers, he said, should immediately find way to get the country out of economic crisis and say goodbye to the international lending agency. The government, he said, should announce 25 percent to 50 percent decrease in prices of food commodities and petrol and gas.

The rulers, he said, should grant interest free loans to youth and create job facilities for millions of jobless people. He demanded provincial autonomy and equal share of provinces in CPEC. He said election should be held on the basis of proportional representation.

The JI, said the Senator, had already started a movement to organize the masses on the agendas which were base of Pakistan’s creation. The mass movement, he said, would continue until the achievement of the objective.

It was high time, he said, masses should stand against the ruling elite which had been looting the country since its birth and vote the JI into power to transfer Pakistan into a real Islamic welfare state. = DNA

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