PESHAWAR: With only three members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Jamaat-i-Islami, a component of the now defunct Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal, holds its cards close to its chest as other political parties have made a beeline, seeking its support for the upcoming Senate polls.

Jamaat-i-Islami has nominated four candidates from the province on all category seats for the Senate elections scheduled for March 3.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, JI provincial president Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that doors of his party were open for seat adjustment with the opposition parties.

He said that different parties had approached JI for the seat adjustment but his party had yet to make final decision in this regard. He added that consultation with different parties excluding Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was in progress.

He said that a delegation of Awami National Party headed by its parliamentary leader in provincial assembly Sardar Hussain Babak visited Al Markaz-i-Islami on Wednesday for discussion on the Senate polls. He said that leaders of Balochistan Awami Party and JUI-F visited the JI provincial secretariat on Tuesday and sought its support for the Senate elections.

It is worth mentioning that JI was coalition partner of PTI in the previous provincial government but it struck deal with ANP for Senate polls in March 2018.

Senator Mushtaq said that protest was legal right of Pakistan Democratic Movement but JI would not become part of the movement. He said that JI would use its own platform to protest the government policies.

He said that the government had ruined the state institutions and the economy had been mortgaged with International Monetary Fund. He said that employees of public sectors demanding increase in their salaries. He came down heavily on interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad who took credit for using tear gas against protesting employees in Islamabad.

Senator Mushtaq said that a matriculate had been appointed law minister in the KP cabinet. He said that PTI allotted Senate tickets to people whose names had been appeared in Panama papers. He said that Federal Finance Minister Hafiz Sheikh was not members of PTI but prime minister nominated him for the Senate.

The JI leader demanded judicial inquiry into the video scandal in which former and sitting MPAs of the ruling party were receiving cash before the Senate elections in 2018. He said that National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak should also be investigated in the video scandal.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2021