LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has called for a grand dialogue among political parties in the parliament as the country can no longer afford polarisation.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he termed the grand dialogue the only option left to bring Pakistan out of prevailing crises and the JI was ready to host the negotiations if the political parties were willing.

The ruling parties, Mr Haq said, had already converted the parliament into a rubber-stamp body while one of them was criticising the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

It was for the first time in history that political leaders and workers were openly attacking the judges of the supreme court, he said and the situation had reached the point where every institution was made controversial.

“Don’t drag the judiciary into political conflicts,” he suggested to the politicians, asking them to show maturity and come to the table to settle their disputes. In case of politicians’ failure, he warned, the country could face an irreparable loss.

The JI leader also criticised three ruling parties for seeking the establishment’s support time and again to remain in power, saying the latter also came under severe criticism for not keeping its neutrality intact defined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

The role of the establishment, he said, was being questioned frequently, particularly after the 2018 election. The PTI, he added, had failed to deliver in three-and-a-half years and now the alliance government of the PDM and the PPP was also following the past policies, ignoring the masses who were under constant burden of inflation and facing hours long loadshedding. Hundreds died and thousands of houses washed away in rains and floods in parts of the country but the rulers had abandoned the poor.

To a question, Sirajul Haq said elections without reforms would prove a futile exercise in the prevailing situation.

“No one would be ready to accept the polls’ results if held without agreement of political players on election process.”

He said the JI wanted polls under the principle of proportional representation and it was the only way to get rid of the politics of electable.

He said the institutions and politicians should surrender before the Constitution.

JI Deputy Secretary General Muhammad Asghar and Information Secretary Qaisar Sharif were also present.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2022