Daily Times

Cracks appeared in the edifice of the joint opposition on Monday as Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) amir Sirajul Haq said that his party’s lawmakers won’t ‘take dictation’ from the PML-N and PPP.

The statement came at a press conference addressed by Haq after the inaugural session of the 15th National Assembly in which 328 MNAs took oath.

“We may be with the opposition but we will not become a part of any dictation from the N-League or the People’s Party,” said Haq, whose party is now a part of five-party alliance Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) that had rejected the July 25 election on grounds that there was rigging on the polling day. The JI was once a coalition partner of the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We will follow our own policies,” he said.

Further, the JI amir distanced himself from remarks given earlier by MMA leader Fazlur Rehman, who was reported as saying that his party would celebrate the Independence Day because of the alleged rigging in the July 25 polls.

On the issue of rigging, Haq criticised the two leading parties in the joint opposition, saying, “Had the PML-N and PPP improved the [electoral] system, the opposition would never have seen this day.”

However, he also criticised state institutions. He said, “The goodwill generated by the state institutions by maintaining peace has been affected. They have exposed themselves during elections.”

Haq then reminded Imran Khan, the Prime Minter-in-waiting, that his test had just begun. “We want him to fulfill all the promises he has made to the nation,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, August 14^th 2018.