NOWSHERA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq on Sunday warned to quit the PTI-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if posts of theology teachers in public sector schools were not restored and Urdu was not given the status of official language in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict.

Mr Haq was addressing the concluding session of his party’s two-day congregation at Azakhel Park here. A large number of people, including women, participated in the congregation.

The JI chief publicly asked senior provincial minister Inayatullah Khan to pursue the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to appoint ‘Islamiat’ (theology) teachers in all the government schools and declare Urdu as official language else they would quit the coalition government.

He also sought to reduce the government and assemblies’ term from five years to four years like America and Britain. Justifying his demand, Mr Haq said that the rulers had been spending the first three years in corrupt practices and looting national wealth while doing nothing for people in the last two years.

He also demanded reforms in the election commission before the 2018 general elections, adding that a large number of bogus votes had been found in the voter lists.


Siraj asks Nawaz to resign over ‘Panamagate’ to avert crisis


He said that some elements changed the results for favorite candidates and parties due to lacunas in the voter lists. He also demanded ban on political parties in general elections who failed to hold intra-party election under the election commission’s supervision.

Mr Haq asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign over Panamagate to avert crisis, alleging he had undermined the ideology of Pakistan and deceived the people by terming Pakistan as ‘liberal and secular state’.

JI provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Dr Said Alam Mahsud, JUI-S leader Maulana Hamidul Haq, Shoaibuddin Kakakhel, Maulana Mohammad Taib Tahiri, Qaumi Watan Party provincial chief Sikandar Sherpao, ministers and MPAs also attended the concluding session.

The JI chief said that a specific group who served the British rule and gained huge properties and benefits was still ruling the country and looting national kitty.

He claimed his party would sweep the 2018 general elections, saying that all other parties had failed to deliver. He pledged that his party would change the system with votes and not guns.

He regretted that while Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was openly interfering in Pakistan’s affairs and claiming to have conducted surgical strike, the rulers here were talking of peace and bilateral relationship.

He urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to raise the issue of Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir at the UN and other forums.

Mr Haq demanded reforms in the present judicial system, saying the judicial system had failed to deliver justice to the victims in time.

He said that the poor had no accesses to get justice in courts because they had no amount t to pay big fees of lawyers.

He said that implementation of Islamic system was panacea for all evils, adding that people would get access to justice very easily if Islamic courts were established.

The JI chief said if voted to power his party would give due share to farmers and labourers in the crop and industrial production.

He said that it was time for bringing about a change in the country. He said that girls’ education would be declared compulsory and parents failing to send their children to schools would be sent to jail.

Published in Dawn October 24th, 2016

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