LAHORE  -  Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said the number of rejected voters in the 25th July elections was higher than the total number of rejected votes in all the previous elections in the country’s history which proved pre-poll rigging as well as post poll rigging.

In a statement here yesterday, he said that the international establishment was out to block the way of the religious parties to power in every possible manner and it was not willing to allow the religious people to come to power even through democratic process.

He said that the PTI government was adding to the price hike instead of providing relief to the people. He said that the masses were expecting revolutionary changes from the government to curtail price hike,  poverty and unemployment. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his speech soon after winning the elections, had promised creation of ten million jobs for the youth besides five million houses for the homeless and freeing the country’s economy from the IMF hold. However, he said, that soon after coming to power, the government had raised the electricity tariff and gas prices.

Sirajul Haq said that the JI had filed a petition for the accountability of the 436 persons named in the Panama leaks but there had been no progress in that direction. He urged the government to adopt effective measures for the recovery of more than five hundred billion dollars of the country lying abroad. He said that the properties of the Pakistan in London, Dubai and New York were besides that.

Meanwhile, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch called for giving due importance to Urdu language in the courts, government offices besides competitive exams and added that no nation could progress without adopting its national language.

He said that a Muslims could never compromise on the Khatme Nubuwwat issue and the sanctity of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).