60 percent of cultivable land lying barren: JI chief

Chief of Jamaat e Islami, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that, population was not the problem of Pakistan as the actual problem was the unjust distribution of the national resources and the 60 per cent of the cultivable land that was lying barren.
While addressing a meeting of the Milli Majlis e Sharaee, at Mansoora he said if the government paid greater attention to the equitable distribution of the national resources besides controlling corruption and bringing the barren land under the plough, all the problems of the people could be solved.
He further said that the success of Pakistan and the Muslim world lies in pursuing its own agenda instead of blindly following the agenda of the west.
Sirajul Haq said that the countries which had controlled their population growth in the past, their individual and collective peace were destroyed. He said that such countries were now announcing big rewards for producing more children. He said that in the past, the European countries had been considering population control as the way to development. But, now these countries had started programmes to encourage population growth and the parents having children were being given big prizes.
He said that out of the provinces of the country, Balochistan had the minimum population while the Punjab had the highest population. He said if development had been dependent on low population, Balochistan should have been the more prosperous and the Punjab would have been backward. But, he said, the factual position was just the opposite.
Sirajul Haq said what was needed was to overcome the factors responsible for backwardness. In this respect, he said, millions of acres of land lying barren must be brought under cultivation without further delay. He said that the kisans and peasants bringing barren land under the plough should not only be provided farm machinery and inputs but such land should be allotted to them. He said if the government made an announcement to this effect today, not only the agricultural production would be doubled during within a few years, but the trend of urbanization would also be controlled.
The JI chief appreciated the importance being given to the construction of dams by the Prime Minster and the Chief Justice. However, he said, it was also imperative to prepare a mechanism for the retrieving the national wealth lying abroad and to sped up the accountability process.