As the long-awaited electoral deadline approaches in Pakistan, since the overthrow of Imran Khan’s government in April 2022, the “Islamic Group”, the political arm of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, continues its preparations for the battle of next February 8, amid an intense political conflict. An unprecedented escalation in political discourse.

The Islamic Group said in a statement that February 8th is the Nation’s Day. To correct its mistakes, it called on the masses to elect the Islamic Group; In order to save the country. She claimed that she alone had the necessary ability; To take the country on the path of development and development.

The Jamaat-e-Islami attacked the main parties: the Muslim League-Nawaz Party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, and the PTI, and accused them of ruling in the manner of mafia gangs. It also accused the current government and previous governments of working for the United States and working to destroy the country’s economy. By submitting to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund. She said that the nation is required to change its old choices, and that the success of the “Islamic Group” is the success of the ordinary citizen in the true sense of the word.

The Islamic Group and the “Liberator’s Mantle”

As usual, Siraj al-Haq, the emir of the “Islamic Group,” continued his populist speech, wearing the mantle of the liberator, claiming in a speech he delivered before a gathering of the Islamic Group in the Lower Dir area, that if he was assigned to form the government, he would liberate Palestine and Kashmir, and force the United States to release Well done my friend!

Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani woman, nicknamed the “Al-Qaeda Lady.” She has been imprisoned in the United States since 2008 and was sentenced to 86 years in prison for attempted murder against American soldiers in Afghanistan. The ISIS terrorist organization had previously announced its intention to extradite Aafia in exchange for the extradition of journalist James Foley, who was killed in August 2014.

In his open maneuver, Siraj al-Haq tried to exert some kind of pressure on the Pakistani military establishment, as it represents the strong infrastructure of the political system in the country. Putting it in front of its historical commitment to Kashmir, and what he describes as its failure regarding the Pakistani citizen detained in American prisons, Aafia Siddiqui, adding to that the vital dimension that Siraj Al-Haq injected into the paths of popular support for his group, which is the exploitation of the Palestinian issue, and placing it on his electoral list, Since then, he hastened to the Middle East and met with Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar, following the outbreak of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The Emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami had attacked the military establishment, in a televised speech, on January 22, claiming that the military institution favored the Muslim League-Nawaz Party. He continued: “There is a conspiracy being hatched behind closed doors, and the Muslim League Party is accustomed to this.” The army also called for neutrality between the parties, and threatened escalation if the elections were postponed, calling on the people to take action, to abort any effort to do so. He added: “If the elections are postponed for any reason, no elections will be held for 10 years.”

Sirajul Haq, called on the people to reject the three ruling parties, and said that Bilawal Bhutto wants to become prime minister; Because his mother and grandfather were also in the same position. He said, “Those demanding bread, cloth, and housing must elect the Islamic group. “Pakistan will become the strongest Asian tiger.” He also toyed with the wishes of the conservative class, saying that he would abolish the co-education system, separate men from women in the workplace, abolish usurious interest from banks, and implement Islamic law in the country.

The Emir of the “Islamic Group” said that the ruling elite turns a blind eye to the “Zionist massacre in Palestine,” and accused the government of concluding a suspicious deal with India, which includes abandoning Kashmir and betraying its people, demanding that the upcoming elections be transformed into a popular uprising for freedom.

Leftist slogans on the altar of the “Brotherhood”

The Emir of the “Islamic Group” used to raise left-wing slogans and demand workers’ rights, through an mobilization speech whose vocabulary indicates the “Brotherhood’s” sharp contradictions, between what is declared and what actually exists. This is because the economic structures with a right-wing dimension that the group adopts in all its commercial activities; This contrasts sharply with the statements made by Sirajul Haq, on January 25, in front of a crowd of his supporters in Hyderabad, where he said that the government’s policies had led to widespread unemployment and the closure of factories, saying that workers were not getting their rights from surplus value. Due to the policies of ruling capitalism, he strongly attacked businessmen, describing them as bloodsuckers.

Siraj Al-Haq added, “There are about 30 million children outside the education system, and despite the presence of agricultural lands, the farmer sleeps hungry, and the people are getting poorer, despite the presence of huge reserves of gold.” He claimed that he would spend the Protocol’s money on orphans and widows, establish an employment system, and would also ensure that Pakistan was debt-free.

The next day, January 26, Siraj ul-Haq headed to the opposite side, where he met a group of businessmen in Karachi and urged them to move forward with their projects, appreciating their national role. He promised them a number of tax concessions if he formed the next government, calling on them to exploit the resources. He added: “There is no shortage of resources in Pakistan, but there is misuse of them.”

Siraj Al-Haq presented to them his experience when he was responsible for financial affairs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province twice, and how he succeeded in ridding it of debts, and passed large facilities to businessmen.

Siraj Al-Haq said that the “Islamic Group” has about (1,200) experts in the fields of: agriculture, industrial development, education, and health, who are fully prepared to cooperate with businessmen and provide technical support for their business.

Provoking ethnic strife

The “Islamic Group” strategy is based on raising the ethnic dimension, in order to obtain the support of marginalized local groups, and to emphasize their oppression with the aim of gaining their support in the electoral ballots. In this context, the Emir of the “Islamic Group” flirted with the people of Balochistan, which he arrived in his electoral convoy, saying in a speech he delivered to a crowd in Jafarabad, that February 8 would be the day of the fall of the feudal lords, who had enslaved the people of Balochistan, as he put it.

Siraj al-Haq ignored the Iranian strike on the region, which a private Iraqi political source commented on to Al-Hal Net, confirming the existence of information indicating that the “Islamic Group” received financial support from Iran.

Sirajul Haq also said that feudalism is the real enemy of the people. He added: “General Baloch and Pashtun people are deprived of living a decent life, and today the youth of Balochistan are unemployed, and there is ethnic discrimination in granting jobs.” He continued: The tyrannical rulers in Islamabad are responsible for the deprivation that Balochistan suffers from.” He claimed that the rate of corruption in development projects in the region reached 65 percent.

The Emir of the “Islamic Group” ignored the Iranian strike on the region, which is what a private Iraqi political source commented on, confirming that there is information confirming that the “Islamic Group” received financial support from Iran, and that there are directives issued to the Shiites in Pakistan to support the candidates of the “Islamic Group” in the upcoming general elections. .

The source pointed out to Al-Hal Net that Siraj al-Haq tried to absorb the anger of the Pashtuns, after the recent Iranian strike on Balochistan, so he distributed unrealistic electoral promises. On the other hand, Tehran promised to eliminate the groups opposing it in Balochistan, once he came to power.

Indeed, Siraj al-Haq did not forget to distribute his bright electoral promises, claiming that his “Brotherhood” group had a program to develop the region, eliminate unemployment in it, establish health care centers, achieve justice among all the people, and do justice to the Pashtuns, after decades of suffering under racist governments.

The Pashtuns are an ethnic group with Afghan roots, who live in the northwest of Pakistan, in the area north of the Indus River. Baloch nationalists demand autonomy, and those demanding independence attack the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which is a region rich in natural resources and yet the least developed in Pakistan.

Absolute opportunism and collusion with the repeaters in Karachi

Hafiz Naimur Rahman, the emir of the group in Karachi and who is considered the second man after Sirajul Haq in the “Jamaat-e-Islami”, announced in Karachi, in its most prominent electoral stronghold, that “the Jamaat-e-Islami has prepared well for the electoral entitlement,” and claimed that those who ruled the state during the past decades had completely destroyed it, The last hope is the election of his Islamist organization.

The Shadow Prince, as he is called, said that the “Islamic Group” would abolish private education, transform government schools into free model schools, and provide information technology-based study services to youth at all levels. He promised to transform universities in the state of Karachi into global scientific edifices, boasting the level of the University of California in the United States!

As usual, Hafiz Naeem Rahman launched an attack on the electricity company (K-Electric), and announced that he would go to court, objecting to granting another license to the company for a period of 20 years, and accused it of plundering the people’s money and stealing from subscribers.

The group’s emir in Karachi said that once the “Islamic group” obtains the popular mandate in the upcoming elections, it will have its say and overthrow the corrupt. Adding: “The Islamic Group does not bow down to anyone.” He continued: “The group will emerge as the largest party in the elections, and will sweep away all competitors. The people no longer have a choice but to elect the Islamic Group.”

In a political move that aroused condemnation and suspicion, the “Islamic Group” organized a sit-in in front of the Council of Higher Secondary Education in Karachi, to protest the results of the first year, and incited the failing students and their parents to demonstrate, and mobilized them in a weak scene, reflecting unprecedented levels of political opportunism.

Indeed, a large number of students and parents participated in the sit-in, and the emir of the “Jamaat-e-Islami” in Karachi, Hafiz Naeem Rahman, also participated in the sit-in, who gave an inflammatory speech. In front of the protesters, he said: “I will not allow these children to be mistreated, you feudal lords. Listen, our war has begun, and we will not allow these students to be persecuted.”

The Directorate of Education had decided to address the widespread cases of mass cheating in the state, and for the first time in a long time, and suddenly, tightened its grip on monitoring exams, which led to more than 44,000 students failing in the first year, and the percentage of students failing in all sections of the first year was About 66 percent of the total students.

For his part, Sindh Governor Kamran Tesori said that 66 percent of Karachi students failed, after mass cheating in exams was strictly prohibited, which puts a question mark on the educational system in Sindh province, as he put it. He added that the regional government is required to reform the educational institution.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister of the caretaker government in Sindh, Maqbool Baqir, rejected the fraud carried out by the “Jamaat-e-Islami” and said that the failure of the students should lead to correcting the defect, not to protesting the results.

In general, by analyzing the political discourse of Siraj al-Haq, as well as his deputy Hafiz Naeem Rahman, we find that Siraj al-Haq uses a very sharp tone to describe the parties that ruled the country and exchanged power among them throughout the history of Pakistan, from independence until today, as he describes the ruling elite as a mafia, and accuses them. In employment for the United States, he said before the election conference in the Sukkur Center, last November 28, that “the victory of the old parties in the February 8 elections will be tantamount to a defeat for Pakistan; Which means re-imposing the feudal lords and capitalists, who were brought in from abroad, and they are the same groups that have been squeezing the blood of the people for decades.”

Therefore, he is today calling on Pakistani voters to “bury mafia politics in the upcoming national elections.” Especially when he said in one of his resonant speeches: “When the president, the prime minister, the first secretary, and the general manager are thieves, why isn’t the market guard a thief?” If adults are right, then honesty will be common in society, and vice versa.” He also said that “the Panama leaks exposed everyone.”

Siraj ul-Haq knows well the difficult economic situation in Pakistan, especially after the Ukrainian war and before the “Covid-19” pandemic, so he put pressure through the economy on marginalized and poor groups such as workers and students. To mobilize broad support for him and his “Brotherhood” group, as most of the electoral convoys that it organizes start from working areas, and the group always raises the card of wasted workers’ rights, making promises here and there, in order to obtain their votes. But the ballot boxes on February 8th remain the decisive point as to whether the Brotherhood will dominate Pakistan or what.