LAHORE: Sirajul Haq, Senior Minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet, was elected the emir of Jamaat-i-Islami on Sunday in what is being called an upset because it was for the first time in the party’s history that a sitting emir has lost the contest in an intra-party election.

He will take oath as the fifth emir for a five-year term within two weeks.

Announcing the result at a press conference, the party’s election commissioner Abdul Hafeez Ahmed said 30,759 Arakeen (members with voting right) had taken ballot papers and of them 25,533 were cast, showing a 85 per cent turnout.

The party shura (consultative body) had suggested three candidates — sitting emir Syed Munawar Hasan, secretary general Liaquat Baloch and naib emir Sirajul Haq — for the post, although the Arakeen were free to vote for someone else.

Interestingly, all the three candidates had remained Nazim-i-Aala (central president) of the JI’s student wing, Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba.

The Arakeen judge the potential emir on three grounds – piety and grasp on religious issues, sincerity and maturity.

Elected emir in 2009 with around 70pc votes for the first term, Munawar Hasan started losing his popularity within the party after JI’s poor showing in the 2013 general elections.

Mr Haq, who was runner-up in the 2009 contest with 28pc support, is naib emir of the party and the youngest among the three candidates this time.

Belonging to a religious family, he is considered to be well-versed with Islamic teachings. He was finance minister in the MMA cabinet in KP and held the same portfolio in the PTI-led coalition government.

He leads a simple life and lives in a small house in Dir.

As IJT chief, Mr Haq was an exponent of ‘Kashmir Jihad’. And a party press release says “Sirajul Haq has the qualities of a true Mujahid”.

Born in December 1962 at Samar Bagh in Dir, Mr Haq did his master’s in education from the Punjab University in late 1980s. He was elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in 2002, but quit his seat in protest against a US drone attack on a Domadola seminary.

He will have to quit the ministry before taking oath as the JI emir in accordance with the party’s policy.