LAHORE: In contrast to the very nomenclature of the party, the emir of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) says he does not believe in the politics of religion.

“I don’t believe in bifurcating politics between religious and non-religious, nor is such a division beneficial for the country and society,” Sirajul Haq said while talking to Dawn here.

“The issue of nationalities is also artificial, as each society is divided only between the oppressors and the oppressed… and there is a need for uniting the oppressed classes against the oppressors,” he articulated his philosophy as did socialists, who employed the terms ‘haves and have-nots’ for their class-based political theory.

Replying to a query about persistent failure of the party in attracting voters, the JI chief criticised the election system that he said was vulnerable to manipulation by the influential.

“In the present system, politics itself as well as voters are held hostage by those wielding power as well as the filthy rich.”

Asked why the party was gradually losing support among Lahorites as it had been securing a couple of seats from the city in the past, Siraj said they were now focusing on Lahore and vowed to negate analysis about the party’s losing graph in Lahore in the next general elections.

Ruling out possibilities of any electoral alliance as premature in the wake of local body elections, he said provincial chapters of the JI had been empowered to take their decisions. He also affirmed that as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter had an understanding with their ally, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), it would most likely make adjustments with them in the province. While the leadership of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan would decide later.

Talking about Karachi, the JI chief said only an operation against criminals across the board could return the city to normalcy.

Doubting the intentions of rulers, he alleged that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had been blackmailing successive governments to keep its crimes under wraps and that the current Sindh government could not do anything about it as it was more concerned about itself than the masses. The PML-N, he added, was wary of the MQM’s strength in parliament.

He said no political party should be allowed to have militant wings and clarifies that the Islami Jamiat Talaba, of which he also remained the central president, was a student organisation not a militant wing of the JI.

He also said the JI did not believe in occupying power through gun and disclosed that after being elected as the party’s emir in April 2014, many forces, including militants, had written to him for working together to enforce Islam in Pakistan through gun power. But, he said, he did not respond to them.

In response to a query about prosecution in Bangladesh of those who stood with Islamabad during the 1971 war and silence of the Pakistan government on the issue, he said each patriotic citizen was worried about the situation. Asked why his party remained silent, he claimed the policy had been adopted on the advice of the Bangladesh JI, which feared their support could worsen the situation there. He, however, claimed behind the scene he had talked to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China, and international institutions as well as local authorities, but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2015

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