LAHORE: Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, Sirajul Haq held the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI0 troika and the establishment equally responsible for the prevailing political and economic crises.
While addressing the Islamic Lawyers Movement at Mansoorah on Tuesday, he said, “All sides are using each other to protect self-interests and stay in power, unconcerned about the plight of the public.”
There are two Pakistanis now, one for the ruling elite and the other for the poor, Sirajul Haq said, adding that poverty, inequality and injustice became permanent perils, and they were due to bad governance and ill-devised policies of the perpetual governments.
He said that the dictators had destroyed 35 years of the country, and the rest were damaged by the so-called hybrid regimes. The country, he said, was moving ahead directionless and most important institutions like judiciary and bureaucracy failed to deliver. How could Pakistan go forwards without the rule of law and justice, he questioned, saying the poor could not get justice all their life while the powerful made a mockery of the law.
Land grabbers, mafias and corrupt have ruled the country for decades, the JI chief said.
He said Pakistan was deprived of the Islamic system under a conspiracy. The country’s rulers, he said, were the agents of Washington. He said the time had reached to get rid of the status quo forces and establish a truely democratic and Islamic system. For this, he said, people had to reject the tested parties and vote for the JI.
Siraj condemned the police crackdown on the Gwadar sit-in, termed it a cruel, unconstitutional and undemocratic act of the provincial government and announced protest demonstrations at provincial headquarters against violence on peaceful protestors Wednesday. He said the countrywide rallies would be taken out in solidarity with the people of Gwadar on Friday.
The JI chief also criticized the government and the Election Commission of Pakistan for postponing the local body polls in Islamabad, asking the ECP to explain from who it took directions to keep the people deprived of their fundamental democratic rights. He said Karachi LB polls were earlier postponed on seven occasions.
