LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq says the confusion about the next election is deliberate and many actors are active in an effort to exacerbate this confusion but the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) will not let the election be delayed even for a day.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, he said once a vehicle (of democracy) was off track, there was no guarantee it would not slip further away or plunge into the ditch.

“Thus any delay, even for a day, in the election will take the process out of constitutional bound.”

Mr Haq regretted that the confusion was so widespread that the leaders were asking each other and the voters were asking their leaders about it and it was deepening every day.

“A resolution by the Balochistan Assembly and the letter by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister are neither impulsive nor separate act. They must be seen in the same background. Someone is pushing some agenda,” he suspected.

However, he said, the political parties were not helping their case either; confusion in Punjab, KP and Balochistan explained behaviour of the political parties.

The JI chief said the election commission had made its own contribution during delimitation, ignoring all traditional and historical considerations and it only created confusion while delimiting the constituencies. Now most of the new constituencies had been challenged and the courts were ordering revision, he added.

“The Saturday decision (the LHC asking the election commission to rewrite nomination papers) would only make the water even muddier. This is another debate whether the election commission can overwrite the act passed by the parliament on a court order? But, this is land of wonders and anything can happen,” Mr Haq said sarcastically.

“The MMA stands for election on time and it would resist even a minor delay as it can see the efforts to postpone it. Though there cannot be any excuse big enough to cause the postponement but it would resist even if there a big enough reason,” he declared and said the general election must be held on time.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2018