ISLAMABAD: Dispelling the rumours about the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) led coup in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial assembly, the top leader of the party hoped that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will not dissolve the provincial assembly despite resigning from the National Assembly and other provincial assemblies.
The politico-religious party is not only a major coalition partner of the PTI in KP but also playing the role of chief mediator between the federal government and PTI during ongoing political crisis.
JI Secretary General, Liaqat Baloch, said the PTI leadership had assured its coalition partner just two days ago that it would neither resign from the KP government nor dissolve the provincial assembly.
To a question about the rumours that the opposition in KP is trying to move a no-trust- motion against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, he said: “Obviously, the opposition will chalk out its own strategy.”
However, when asked whether his party will join the opposition in the no-trust-motion, he strongly denied that, saying this is not the teaching of our elders.
Announcing the PTI decision on resigning from the national and provincial assembly yesterday, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said decision on the fate of KP assembly will be taken after consultation with the coalition partners.
Jamat-e-Islami, which has eight MPs in the provincial assembly, is not ready to support any PTI’s move to dissolve the assembly. The PTI has 46 members in the provincial assembly with the total house strength of 124.
“They have not taken their decision yet, and we hope they will contact us soon over the issue,” Baloch said yesterday. He said earlier the JI had conveyed to its partner in the KP government that dissolution of the provincial assembly is not a good option.
“We had discussed the issue in our previous meeting with the PTI, and they had assured us that they do not have plans to quit KP government,” he said.
The JI leader said the party is in contact with both the PML-N and PTI leadership for the peaceful resolution of the current political impasse.
Jamaat-e-Islami is a social conservative, far-right and radical Islamist political party. Its objective is to make Pakistan an Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. On many economic fronts, the JI strongly objected and opposed concepts such as capitalism, liberalism, socialism and secularism as well as practices such as offering bank interest. Promotion of the practicing the Islamic democracy as part of its main party programme, the JI is a vanguard party: its members form an elite, with ‘affiliates’ and then ‘sympathizers’ beneath them. The party leader is called an ameer.
The JI came to its modern foundation in Lahore in 1941 in British India by the Muslim theologian and socio-political philosopher, Abul Ala Maududi. In 1947, JI moved its operations to West-Pakistan after Independence.
INTERNEWS
