PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq on Sunday asked the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq not to accept the resignations of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers as doing so would further deepen the current political crisis in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the Markaz-i-Islami here, Mr Haq said that the National Assembly speaker had played a very pragmatic role in connection with the resignation issue of the PTI members of parliament. He said that not accepting the resignation from PTI lawmakers would lead to defusing political tensions in the country.

“The deadlock between the government and the PTI should end now,” said the JI chief. He said that a PTI delegation led by party’s senior vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi was scheduled to meet him (Siraj) in Mansura, Lahore to discuss the deadlock and find a way out of the crisis. He said that political problems could only be solved through political ways.

Mr Haq hailed the Pakistan Awami Tahreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri for announcing to participate in the general elections.

The Jamaat chief called upon the religious scholars and ulema to play their due role in ending differences among different sects and schools of thoughts and to forge unity in the ranks of Muslims.

Mr Haq said that hundreds of thousands of people had rendered their lives in the struggle for the creation of Pakistan to have their own country and live independently.

However, he said that Pakistan was not created to be dictated by the international financial institutions like the World Bank

and International Monetary Fund and ruled by capitalists, feudal lords, and opportunists.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2014