ISLAMABAD – Ameer, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Syed Munawar Hasan, has said that a revolution must precede elections in the country in order to ameliorate the lot of the masses.
Addressing a rally organized by the JI against the US interference, drone attacks, besides price hike and other socio-economic ills here on Sunday, he claimed that elections in the country had always brought thieves, feudal lords, and capitalists into power who multiplied the people’s problems besides damaging the Islamic identity of the country.
A revolutionary change prior to the elections alone could stop the return of corrupt and pro-US people to power, he added. Thousands of people joined the rally in spite of biter cold and heavy rain.        
Syed Munawar Hasan said that the current four-year rule of the PPP had further weakened democracy and the parliament while the judiciary was mocked at and the constitutional institutions were harmed.
During this period, more than 7,000 Americans were issued visas unlawfully which resulted in a spate of terrorism.
He said that the country’s economy had been ruined and the common man was finding it difficult to make both ends meet. Thousands of industrial units had been closed and workers had been rendered jobless.
He said that if the masses wanted a change, they must support the JI, which had an honest and competent leadership capable of solving their problems.
Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General, Liaqat Baloch, has said that Asif Ali Zardari was a disputed person who was continuing as co- Chairman of the PPP while holding the office of the President despite court orders.
He claimed that there was more hatred against the PPP and Asif Ali Zardari in Sindh as compared to the other provinces and people there were pulling down the PPP tri-colour from their rooftops and vehicles.
No body could play the Sindh card in future, he added.
The JI Secretary General said that the memogate scandal was the product of US mind and aimed at creating differences between the Pakistani people in order to prove this country a failed state.
Baloch said that the masses were also losing faith in the judiciary for delay in the action against more than four thousand target killers and extortionists belonging to the MQM even after the scrapping of the NRO.
He said that the nation wanted to know from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court why the target killers and extortionists were still at large and why cases against them were not being reopened.
He said that JI was in contact with the political parties and all its options including that of seat adjustment were open. On the issue of MMA’s revival, he said, “We would have to take the nation in confidence after making amends for the past lapses.”
If certain parties remain in touch with the government and other parties in spite of being in the MMA, the religious alliance would suffer and it would not be able to come up to the nation’s expectations, he added.
He said the present situation called for setting up of an independent Election Commission to hold fresh elections under an interim government, as the people wanted a change.