LAHORE: Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Sirajul Haq has lambasted government for going ahead with its IMF-proposed ‘mini-budget’, vowing to resist the supplementary finance bill within and outside the parliament.

The government must stop burdening poverty-stricken masses massive taxation, he said in a statement issued from here on Monday.

The poor people, he added, were already paying heavy taxes while exemptions of Rs4 trillion were available to influential people. The PTI, he said, made a complete surrender before the IMF and formed economic policies on the direction of the international lending agency.

Reacting over National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf confession that Pakistan’s foreign polices is still under US influence, he said the JI for over the years had been telling this to the nation. He said the rulers should have taken measures of self-reliance, built national consensus on economy, bring into tax net the influential people to get rid of Washington.

But, he said, the successive governments in Pakistan had shown no interest to put the country on track. Their focus, he added, remained on looting the resources and stashing their money in foreign banks. That was why, he said, the country needed honest and dedicated leadership instead of three tested parties.

Sirajul Haq held the government responsible for Murree tragedy, saying the sheer negligence on the part of administration was one of the main reasons behind the deaths of dozens of innocent people.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022