Jamaat e Islami urges rulers to shelve Privatization plan

Chief of Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that the JI was against the nationalisation of private industries as well as the Privatization of state owned institutions. While addressing the central working committee of the National Labour Federation (NLF) at Mansoora, he said that the government had no right to take over the private property of any individual nor to hand over the national institutions to any individual.
He said in the past, when the government took over private industries, etc, the JI had strongly opposed this unconstitutional act. Similarly, he said, the JI was now opposing the Privatization of the national institutions and handing them over to the favourites of the rulers on throw away prices.
Sirajul Haq said the government's Privatization policy totally lacked transparency. The rulers were including profit earning institutions among sick units only to befool the masses and to sell off these to their cronies against all rules and laws. He said the government was intentionally keeping the nation and the parliament in the dark on Privatization deals.
The JI chief said that the fact that the workers of the institutions were not being taken into confidence on Privatization proved that the process lacked transparency. He said that thousands of workers working in these institutions were affected by these decisions. He said that no government in the world would ignore the workers while taking such important decisions but unfortunately the Pakistani rulers thought it an insult to talk to the workers.
He termed the Privatization of major national institutions including the PIA, Pakistan Steel, as mala fide and outright tyranny. He said instead of bringing the institutions in working order through improved management, the government thought an easy solution in Privatization. He said the sell out of the PIA and Pakistan Steel would be a colossal loss to the national economy and the JI would never allow that.
He urged the masses to join the JI drive against corruption in order to stop the rulers from taking such decisions against national interest. He said the Pakistan Railways had been salvaged through a better management and the PIA and the Pakistan Steel could also be brought on sound footing with the cooperation of their workers.
Meanwhile, the JI chief in a letter to the Chief Minister Khyber P. has called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to hold Students Unions elections in the province to allow the youth the right to elect their leadership. He said the national leadership in the Senate was unanimously in support of affording the Union right to the students as the ban on the students unions was against the constitution and the law. He said the Students Union activity would provide the best way to curb extremism and the Khyber P government should take the lead in this respect.