Daily Times

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI) has offered General Raheel Sharif – the retired chief of the army staff – to join the party for holding an ‘operation’ in politics like the successful Zarb-e-Azb military action against terrorism during his tenure in the Pakistan Army. This offer was formally given by Dr Waseem Akhtar, the only legislator of the Jamaat-e-Islami in the Punjab Assembly from Bahawalpur during the assembly proceedings on Thursday. Highlighting the political situation on a supplementary question during Question Hour in the House, the Jamaat leader said that he formally invited General Sharif to join them as a politician after two years as per national laws and rules and regulation for the army officer. Paying rich tribute to General Sharif, he said that the former army chief had maintained law and order by holding a successful military operation against terrorists in the country so such an act was also needed in politics. For such a purpose, he should join the Jamaat. Interestingly, when Dr Waseem tabled his offer to a retired general to join Jamaat against the party’s political hierarchy and procedure of joining, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Nadeem Kamran questioned the presence of a general in the party.