LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) emir Sirajul Haq has expressed the resolve that the JI will give its mayor to Karachi, saying the party is ready to hold talks with all stakeholders on the agenda, except the PPP.

At a central leadership meeting in Mansoora on Tuesday, he said the JI would only negotiate with Sindh’s ruling party if the latter recognised the JI as the port city’s top-leading party.

The PPP, Haq alleged, was directly involved in rigging in the second phase of the local government elections and tried to block the way of the JI under a conspiracy in some union councils.

“We have proof of rigging in at least nine UCs,” he said, adding that if rigging had not occurred in some areas, the JI would have emerged as the single largest party in Karachi on Sunday. He asked the PPP to accept reality and give back the JI mandate if it was serious about moving ahead.

He said the JI believed in dialogue, hoping the PPP would accept the real mandate of the people of Karachi.

He reiterated the demand for electoral reforms, saying the JI had long been calling for free and fair polls. The bad practices of controlling election results in the past would no longer be accepted by the people, he said, adding that rigging polls would bring anarchy to the country.

He said the people were much more aware now in the age of social media and technology, and they could not be deprived of exercising their democratic rights and electing their representatives in transparent and free manners.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2023