LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq said the government itself had not executed the death sentence handed down by civil courts to about 8,000 criminals but an impression was being given that the judiciary had failed on this front.

Talking to the media at Mansoora here on Sunday, he said the government had provided no evidence against the seminaries so far nor it had named even a single madressah involved in terrorism.

He said after the Peshawar tragedy a clear cut mandate was given to the prime minister for a war against terrorism, but the government failed to take full advantage of the opportunity and there was no “impressive activity” in sight for uprooting terrorism.

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“The government’s non-seriousness against terrorism and lawlessness is manifest from the fact that not a single meeting of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has so far been held.”

The JI emir said the party’s central consultative body had decided to launch a mass-contact campaign during the current year and open JI’s doors to all and sundry.

“It has been decided to invite the masses to join JI and raise the membership to 10 million,” he said. Conventions of the youth, farmers and labourers would be held at divisional level and one million youth would be inducted into the party under the drive, he added.

The minorities would also be invited to join the JI and a special wing was being set up for the purpose, he said. Siraj said that rallies, public meetings and Kashmir conferences would be held in the federal as well as provincial capitals and other major towns on Feb 5 to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day.

He said for the solution of Balochistan issue a national level delegation would meet the estranged Baloch leadership next month and try to bring them back to the national mainstream.

About the situation in Karachi and Sindh, he said the MQM and the PPP had been close allies and whatever their leaders were disclosing about each other was true.

Published in Dawn January 12th , 2014

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