December 14, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 3, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Making a U-turn, a former MNA from the capital city is now rowing the boat against the current by advocating abstention among his supporters after days of hard work put in to win votes for the Jamaat-i-Islami, which is now all set to boycott the polls.

“My party has decided to boycott the polls and being a committed worker of Jamaat, I will boycott the elections too,” Mian Mohammad Aslam told Dawn on Wednesday.

After initially getting himself registered to run in the election on NA-48 seat, he has now kicked off an anti-polls campaign.

Mr Aslam, who was voted in as MNA by more than 40,000 people in 2002, said under a novel campaign, he was visiting different areas in the constituency and holding corner meetings in order to convince the people not to take part in the election process.

“I am hopeful that I will convince them and you will see that very small number of people in my constituency will come out to cast votes on the polling day,” the JI leader said. The JI leader says though he has a fair chance of winning the polls second time, he will abide by the decision of his party.

“I can never think of contesting the polls in independent capacity,” he said categorically.