SUKKUR: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan naib emir Maulana Asadullah Bhutto has called for making electoral reforms before going into general elections as only transparent polls can help bring genuine representatives of people to parliament.

“We have presented our recommendations for electoral reforms and now other political parties should also submit their suggestions so that elections can be held in a transparent manner in the country,” said the Maulana while talking to media persons here on Monday.

He said that local government election in Islamabad had become a laughing stock. Imran Khan was not interested in LG election, rather, he was more concerned about the restoration of his government, he said.

He said that people were starving to death but the political parties were engaged in a nasty fight over power and were only busy playing politics to grind their own axe.

He said that the ruling alliance of 14 political parties had utterly failed to provide relief to people. The country did not go default in one day but it had reached this precarious stage due to self-destructive deals and policies made over the decades by all past governments, he said.

He said that unchecked corruption had jammed the country’s system. It was not Sindh governor’s job to lead election campaign or unite his party and in fact JI’s rivals had become confused after having seen the party’s strengthening position in Karachi, he said.

He said that JI candidates did not build their palaces they rather served people and worked for the development of Karachi and the country. Imran Khan could not win upcoming election because he had failed to provide relief to people when he was in power, he said.

He remarked that people would not cast their votes in favour of Imran because his government cut damaging deals with international money lenders, which led to rise in inflation and prices of petroleum products and swelled the ranks of the unemployed.

He referred to reports about expenses on Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s visit to America and said it did not behoove foreign minister of a poor country, which was reportedly facing serious economic problems, to spend such a huge amount of public money on his tours.

He advised the government to reduce salaries and perks of MPAs, MNAs and Senators in a bid to steer the county out of economic quagmire. Furthermore, he suggested the ruling party ministers and members voluntarily quit their luxuries to help reduce expenses.

The Maulana said that law enforcement agencies and government should take stringent measures to quell the resurgent wave of terrorism across the country.

Published in Dawn, january 3th, 2023