LAHORE, Oct 11: Political problems must be solved through political and democratic means instead of ‘other forces’ and state institutions, says Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) ameer Qazi Husain Ahmad.

A democratic struggle and dependence on people’s power are the only ways to realise the cherished goal of a functional democracy and ameliorate people’s socio-economic conditions, the Qazi said in reply to a question at an Iftar reception on Thursday.

He said dictatorial forces had always suppressed democratic struggles, maligned political parties through a vicious propaganda and thwarted peaceful means of struggle to give rise to violence. Unarmed people cannot fight the state repression as is happening in tribal areas where ‘peaceful agitation’ is being curbed by the bomb and the bullet and the region is being ‘plunged’ into civil war, he added.

The JI chief said his party had decided to convene a meeting of its workers to consult them and devise a strategy for a role in the democratic struggle. He said this was the time the JI should build itself as a political institution.

He said the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) decided on Sept 29 that all legislators of its component parties would quit assemblies and the NWFP Assembly would be dissolved. On his return from Saudi Arabia, Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned the decision. Later, Mr Rehman talked to the APDM, which set Oct 2 deadline for the dissolution of the provincial legislature. He said Mr Rehman subsequently blamed the JI and its NWFP Assembly speaker for delay in the assembly’s dissolution, which was ‘unwarranted’. “I can’t understand why Mr Rehman prolonged the assembly’s dissolution.”

Mr Ahmad said he hoped the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would overcome its ‘temporary’ difficulties and play its role in the national politics once again. About the caretaker set up, he said it must hold fair election according to its obligation.

He said lawmakers’ resignations from assemblies exposed the illegitimacy of the presidential election.