Pakistan’s IPP head Tareen quits politics, JI chief Siraj resigns after poll defeat

Tariq Butt, Correspondent 

Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) chairman and patron-in-chief Jahangir Tareen and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq on Monday stepped down citing the poor performance of their respective political parties in the Feb.8 general election. Tareen also decided to quit politics altogether.

"I would like to thank everyone who supported me in this election and want to offer my congratulations to my opponents,” he said in a post on X.

"I have immense respect for the will of the people of Pakistan,” Tareen said, offering his gratitude to all IPP members.

"I wish them the absolute best. I will continue to serve my country to the best of my ability in a private capacity. May the next few years see Pakistan prosper,” he added.

Tareen was defeated from both seats of the National Assembly of Lodhran and Multan by the nominee of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) backed candidate.

Only two candidates of the IPP - Abdul Aleem Khan and Aun Chaudhry - were elected to the National Assembly from Lahore with the support of the PML-N, which did not field its nominees against them.

The IPP was formed only weeks before the general election. It mostly comprised the defectors of the PTI. It never has any popular appeal.

Siraj resigned from the party office just a few weeks before the election of the new chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The party has announced its schedule to hold the election in March. The electoral performance of the Jamaat-e-Islami all over Pakistan was highly dismal.

Meanwhile, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman resigned from a Sindh Assembly seat he had won in the Feb.8 election over alleged rigging.

According to the provincial results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the Feb.8 general election, Rehman won from the PS-129 constituency (Karachi Central VIII) with 26,296 votes.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Muaz Muqaddam was the runner-up with 20,296 votes.

The development comes a day after the party staged sit-ins at eight different key points in Karachi against alleged rigging in the polls.

Rehman had earlier stated that his party’s and independent candidates had secured the majority of votes in Karachi’s national and provincial assemblies constituencies but the MQM-P was being imposed on the city.

The Jamaat-i-Islami had also protested outside the office of the Sindh election commission on Saturday, where it was joined by supporters of the PTI and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

An irate Rehman told reporters that a PTI-backed independent candidate has won and "I will not avail this seat. When I estimated that there was a difference of a few hundred votes, I asked my team for each and every Form 45. When we checked, we found out that the ECP had shown fewer votes for us but as I did not succeed, I forfeit this seat,” he said.

Rehman claimed that PTI-backed independent candidate Saif Bari had won according to his team’s calculations, stating that his votes were "reduced to 11,000 from 31,000.” According to the ECP, Bari had gathered 11,357 votes.