LAHORE- Sirajul Haq, the newly elected chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, took oath of his office today.

The oath-taking ceremony was held at JI’s headquarters in Lahore. Outgoing JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan administered the oath to him. Sirajul Haq was elected as the new Ameer of the Islamist party, replacing Syed Munawar Hassan on March 30, 2014 through a secret balloting.  Outgoing JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan, party's general secretary Liaqat Baloch and Sirajul Haq had run for the top slot. Out of 31,311 JI’s members, 25,533 people voted in favour of Sirajul Haq. He was elected for tenure of five years. Haq is a senior member of the party and is well-versed in several languages including Urdu, Pashto, Persian, Arabic and others. He is renowned among his followers for his modesty and apart from serving as a Senior Minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, was also performing the duties of the party's deputy chief since 2009.