Steering Committee formed by the National Leaders' Conference is scheduled to meet in Islamabad on October 8, to decide future line of action concerning the anti-government drive of joint opposition. Jamaat-i-Islami General Secretary Munawar Hassan revealed this while talking to newsmen here on Wednesday.
He said the foreign and economic policies of the government had been totally failed. Secret meetings with Israeli leadership by General Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri were a conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam and tantamount to bypass the parliament, he added.
"Israel is the world biggest land grabber, who evicted six million Palestinian from their homeland", he said.
He further said that Pakistan government was considering building up fence on Pak-Afghan border whereas India had opened its 13 consulates in Afghanistan. "Afghanistan is doing most of its business with India but Pakistan could not take any economic or trade benefit from Afghanistan," he added.
Talking about the country's economy, Munawar demanded of the government to immediately freeze the privatisation process and publish performance report of privatised institutions along with their impact on the national economy.
He alleged the government had sold profit-earning institutions at lower rates to foreigners, which put the country's solidarity on stake. Pakistan, on the direction of World Bank, started privatisation in 1990 and privatised assets worth Rs 60 billion during 10 years till 2000.
On the contrary, the Musharraf government privatised assets worth Rs 36 billion during three years, while Shaukat Aziz government just in two years privatised country's precious assets worth Rs 261 billion, the JI leader said.
The privatisation process was aimed at retiring foreign debts with 90 percent of the total proceeds while 10 percent was to be spent for poverty alleviation and an ordinance was also issued in this regard during September 2000.
The privatisation process failed to achieve desired results because it resulted in local as well as foreign debts, he maintained.
"The government sold country's sensitive assets like PTCL and Habib Bank at cheaper rates to the foreign companies and planning to sell Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Pakistan State Oil, which are generating handsome revenue."
"It seems the government is pushing the country towards colonialism," he said.
He said the joint opposition would strengthen its mass contact campaign during Ramazan and would hold big rallies in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi after Eid.