ISLAMABAD, 5 December 2006 — The Jamaat-e-Islami said yesterday it would boycott the by-election scheduled for Jan. 10 in Bajaur Agency.
The Election Commission of Pakistan will hold by-election to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Jamaat member Haroon Rashid. Rashid had quit the assembly to protest missile attack on a madrasa in Bajaur that left 82 people dead. The government claimed all those killed were militants and the facility was used for training terrorists.
A tribal assembly in Bajaur recently ruled that those taking part in the by-election will be dealt with by the jirga sternly. Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has already announced that deputies from his party will submit their resignations en masse on Dec. 7.
Another party within the Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal alliance, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, did not back Jamaat on the resignation issue.
The executive committee of the JUI yesterday discussed the issue.
JUI chief Fazlur Rahman told journalists his party was weighing the option of resignations, but most of the members were not in favor. “We intend to launch a countrywide movement against the government,” he said.
