LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq says the masses are not satisfied with the performance of federal and provincial governments as the parties coming into power with tall promises have simply disappointed their electorate.

He was speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected provincial emirs of the party here on Wednesday.

Mian Maqsood was sworn in as the new chief of the JI’s Punjab chapter, Merajul Huda Siddiqui of Sindh, Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi became head of its Balochistan chapter.

Sirajul Haq said that the JI had tried for rapprochement between the government and the PTI during the Islamabad sit-in last year to provide the rulers an opportunity to deliver and clear the allegations being leveled against them.

He said the government had promised electoral reforms but regrettably there was no progress in that direction.

He lamented that the Election Commission also failed to improve its working and its performance during the recent by-elections was also questionable. He said it was talk of town that the by-election in the Punjab capital was a competition of wealth between the two contestants.

He said the JI stood for an independent judiciary and it had offered huge sacrifices for this cause though the party was not satisfied with the performance of the courts.

“The judges for whose reinstatement the JI had launched a movement and fought against Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship were questioning the very structure of the Constitution instead of standing by the Constitution and democracy,” he said in a reference to superior judge’s remarks in a case that whosoever desired could receive interest (bank mark-up) on investment.

The JI chief condemned Shiv Sena’s violence against the Muslims and other minorities in India and said that so-called cricket diplomacy and exchange of artists could not end Modi’s enmity for Islam and Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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