Chief of Jamaat e Islami, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that the creation of the South Punjab or Bahawalpur province was not among the priorities of the government. According to media cell of JI at Mansoora, he was addressing press conferences at Multan and Bahawalpur on Sunday. He said that mere setting up a few offices was not enough as a separate province means establishing a new provincial assembly and having a new Chief Minister and his cabinet. He said the government had not taken any step in that direction in line with its election promise.
Sirajul Haq said that the government and the opposition joined hands for common interests. For instance, they stood together for the release of Christian women Aasia Masih who had been charged with blasphemy as also against the bill seeking ban on liquor. He said that the economic policy of the PTI was only ad-hoc. He said that like the previous governments, the PTI government was also wasting the nation's time. He said the PTI had promised to build Pakistan on the pattern of the Madina state but nothing had been done in that direction. Sirajul Haq said the nation had been stressing upon the government to ensure the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from the US jail whereas the government, had released Christian woman Aasia Masih.
He said that other nations were landing on the moon but the Pakistan government was unable to tackle the problems of load shedding, illiteracy and disease. Children were dying of hunger and thirst in Thar but the rulers were taking it as something normal. This, he said, was typical feudal outlook. He said the Sahiwal tragedy was most gruesome. He said the PML-N government had killed over a dozen innocent people at Model Town while during the PPP government; a senior police officer had killed around four hundred innocent people in fake police encounters. He said the present rulers should have learnt a lesson from the fate of the previous rulers. Sirajul Haq said the nation would demonstrate complete solidarity with the Kashmiris in their struggle for their liberation from Indian hold. He said it was the national duty of our people to stand by the Kashmiris who were fighting the war of the completion of Pakistan.