LAHORE: Rejecting the results of July 25 elections, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq on Monday demanded an “independent high-level commission” to investigate “rigging and manipulation” of the polls.

Addressing a press conference at the end of a 16-hour meeting of the JI’s central executive, Mr Haq reminded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan that a commission was formed when he had alleged rigging in the 2013 elections.

“It’s time to reciprocate the act,” he added.

The JI central executive, he said, favoured going to the assemblies and playing the role of an effective opposition, instead of delaying the oath — as suggested by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Sirajul Haq says there was a full-fledged campaign to replace national leadership with ‘chosen people’

As a component of the MMA, he said, the JI would take its case to the alliance chief and discuss it with him. But the JI wanted to be part of parliament and play its role there, he said, adding that even the weakest democracy was better than any other form of government.

“This is despite the fact that the Jamaat-i-Islami, after reviewing and evaluating reports from across the country, believes that all constitutional, responsible state institutions — the Election Commission, the caretaker government and others — have failed to ensure free and fair polls. Pre-poll rigging, highhandedness during polls and creating a biased political environment before, during and after the elections were all designed to get particular political and electoral results. It became so blatant that now even the winners are feeling ashamed,” he claimed.

The PTI might have had an upper hand even in free and fair elections, but the overkill carried out through the process had spoiled their victory, Mr Haq said, adding: “There was a full-fledged campaign to replace national leadership with some chosen people. For the purpose, the state machinery was used to remove polling agents from the stations and deny Form-45 (containing all details of the results) to the candidates from Karachi to Chitral. Victory became an electoral football when it was alternately granted to different candidates. All these factors have made the whole electoral process dubious. It is now for the PTI to form an empowered commission to investigate and clear all these doubt, otherwise its moral authority to govern would also be suspect during its rule.

“Though the JI feels that democracy has been strangulated in the name of democracy, it would still prefer, and support, democracy over other forms of governance. That was why, the party thought it should go to parliament and fight its case there along with other forums.”

Now, he said, the JI would wait for the PTI to deliver on its promise of creating an Islamic welfare state, taking Pakistan out of the debt trap, making progress on resolution of the Kashmir issue and investing in human development in the country.

Making the cost of the JI support for Imran Khan clear, he said the party would particularly watch delivery on the promise of making Pakistan a country like the State of Madina under the PTI, “where usury is abolished, immorality is controlled, corruption blocked and laws brought into conformity with the Holy Quran and Sunnah, as recommended by the Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan”.

He said the JI would join parliament and support or oppose the government on a case-to-case basis, with Islamic system of governance being the benchmark — but would continue pressing on its earlier stance of “accountability of all, not for a selected few”.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2018