KARACHI: Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday announced to observe "Gaza week" from October 1 with a one-day countrywide protest against the Palestinians genocide.
The week will also mark a citywide million march on October 6 to highlight the miseries of Palestinians in Gaza, Hafiz Naeem told a news conference held at Idara Noor-e-Haq.
He said that the party is also going to hold a nationwide protest on October 7 in an effort to show solidarity with the underdog Palestinians facing historic genocide with over 41,000 deaths in Gaza by Isreali occupation forces.
"The government should observe October 7 on the national level as an expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine and their freedom fighters," Hafiz Naeem demanded, appealing to the nation for its participation in the protest.
Regarding the local issues, he said that his party is chalking out a future plan to respond to the government's inaction on scraping the IPPs contracts after the deadline for enforcing the terms it had agreed with the JI has elapsed. "The JI is set to announce its future course of action at its central headquarters in Mansoora, Lahore on Tuesday through media," he said and slammed the government for failing to take "any substantial" measure to ensure relief to the people in the 45-day period.
Unfolding the JI's likely response after the government backed out of the terms, he said that his party has scores of option such as a three-day countrywide general strike, a protest march to Islamabad, and boycotting electricity bills.
Hafiz Naeem asked the ruling elite to end its lavish expenditure at the cost of taxpayers’ necessities, saying that the government should transfer the tax burden of the poor and salaried class to the feudal lords.
The government should also end the "dirty" game of capacity payments to benefit the IPPs and stop "blessing" the K-Electric extensively. He termed the K-Electric "mafia" that enjoys protection from the public's demand for a government-led forensic audit.
Hafiz Naeem highlighted that just four percent of landowners control 40 percent of the country's agricultural land, urging the nation that its fortunes could be transformed by ousting the "corrupt and rotten elite" from power.
He also demanded of the government to cut the fuel oil prices, mainly petrol to Rs150 a litre to reflect the fall in the global rates that have dropped to $70 a barrel.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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