ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq on Monday said if the Supreme Court (SC) wanted to play a role in the election issue, it should take all stakeholders on board and try to build a consensus.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Mr Haq said general elections instead of polls in two provinces could bring stability, announcing that the JI would not enter into alliance with any party in the next election.

“We would go to the polls on our own and we have nominated our candidates for it at all national and provincial assembly seats,” he said.

To further the election momentum, the JI has called its candidates to Islamabad on March 9 to devise a future strategy.

The JI emir held the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) equally responsible for economic, political and constitutional crises currently faced by the country.

He said ruling parties failed to fulfill their responsibility towards public issues and dragged institutions into their fight for self-interests, adding that therefore the JI had decided to stay away from these parties in the future.

He said the federal government had targeted the poor on the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by imposing billions of rupees of taxes on people.

The government, he said, was not willing to touch those who held properties abroad and owned foreign bank accounts.

“Among them were top politicians, bureaucrats, retired judges and generals,” he said, adding that 18 powerful politicians, industrialists and property tycoons owned assets worth Rs4,000 billion. Still, they paid taxes equal to the common man, and no institution had the courage to question them about their properties, Mr Haq said.

He asked the government to give rights to the people of Gwadar and release the Gwadar Rights Movement leader Maulana Hidayatur Rahman and his colleagues.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2023