LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq says democracy will remain under threat until acceptance of the recommendations of the political jirga mediating between the government and ‘organisers’ of Islamabad sit-ins.

Mr Haq, who is heading a party which is a coalition partner of the PTI, has also put his weight behind the protesters by saying that he likes them to return as winners.

“As long as recommendations of the jirga are not accepted, politics and democracy will remain hostage,” he told the media during a break in a consultation meeting of the JI here on Tuesday.

He said that in Islamabad, the PML-N was the ruler during the day, while at night the city was governed by the two parties staging the sit-in.

He said all the three parties would have to shed their egoism to safeguard the country’s solidarity and strengthen the constitution and democracy.

The jirga had broken the deadlock and it would be in the interest of both sides to accept the recommendations, he added.

Hint of tilt in Siraj’s quest for winner

Dropping a hint about the tilt of the recommendations the jirga had submitted as well as his own intentions, he said: “We would like the participants in the sit-in to return home successfully.”

Pointing out overstepping of their respective mandates by various state institutions, he said had all the institutions worked within their limits, such a situation would not have cropped up.

The JI chief lamented that successive governments always ignored issues until the crisis deepened. In the present situation, he said, the government had shown total indifference on the issues of electoral rigging and killings of the PAT workers leading the disputes to a blind alley.

Mr Haq alleged the western powers wanted to create a situation here like Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan.

Replying to a question, he said the JI’s stance on the Kalabagh dam was the same as that of the nation. He said flood preventive measures were adopted all over the world, so why could not it be done in this country.

He said the federal government had not discharged its duties regarding the protection of the masses from floods and construction of dams, leaving the masses at the mercy of deluge.

Published in Dawn, September 17th , 2014