LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Majlise Shoora has rejected the anti-people budget and decided to launch the countrywide protest movement against inflation and unemployment from next week. This was said by chief of JI Senator Siraj-ul-Haq while addressing a press conference on the concluding day of the three-day session of the JI top decision making body here at Mansoora.
"We will organize anti-unemployment march of youth in Islamabad on July 2. A protest-day will be observed in all major cities on July 4," Siraj added.
Rejecting the government proposed electoral reforms as controversial and a plan to rig the next election, he said the political parties must join hands for introducing comprehensive plan to hold fair and free elections. The JI, he added, had prepared a draft on electoral reforms and shared it with the political parties for consultation. He said the establishment should stay away from politics, asking the political parties also avoid dragging the establishment in political affairs. All institutions, he said, should work within their limits to strengthen the democratic values in the country. To a question, he said the JI was in favour of giving voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.
He said the PTI government damaged the Kashmir cause and failed to meet the expectations of the people of Pakistan and Kashmir. He demanded the government present all agreements between US and Pakistan before the parliament. The JI chief also demanded the government implement in letter and spirit the Supreme Court order regarding adaptation of Urdu as official language. He said the government was trying to control media freedom through different tactics. The curb on freedom of expression, he said, was unacceptable to the nation and the JI. He said the JI believed in peace and development and would establish rule of law if voted to power. He said the PTI, the PML-N and the PPP were the sides of the same coin and clubs of feudal lords and capitalists. He said the provincial governments wanted escape from local government polls which exposed the major parties so-called commitment with democracy. He said the JI would go to the election with its own flag and symbol.
Meanwhile, Liaqat Baloch, Deputy Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and President of the Political Electoral Standing Committee, in a meeting with Sindh leaders Hezbollah Jhakro and Abdul Hafeez Bijarani, said that the whole country was engulfed in lawlessness. Law enforcement agencies themselves have become outlaws. People are not getting protection of life, property and honour. The incidents of tribal clashes and killings in Sindh are a great human tragedy. Federal, provincial governments and state law enforcement agencies should address this.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021