July 28, 2008	Monday	Rajab 24, 1429

TIMERGARA, July 27: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) provincial chief Sirajul Haq has said that the budget passed by the coalition government in the NWFP was not based on facts.

“I was surprised when, I heard that the provincial government had presented a budget of Rs174 billion, because it is far beyond the total income of the province,” the former provincial minister said while talking to journalists here on Sunday.

He said the MMA-led government had presented the last budget with a total outlay of Rs114 billion while the ANP-led government had presented Rs174 billion budget despite the fact that the total income of the province had not been increased as compared to the difference being showed in the budget details.

He claimed that bureaucrats were the real rulers currently and the establishment’s policies were being carried out by the government. It seemed that there is no government anywhere in the province and the public had been left at the mercy of Allah.

Mr Haq said that leaders of major political parties in the coalition government were mostly out of the country and the affairs of the state were being run through emails and mobile phones.

The JI leader claimed that the prime minister and NWFP chief minister were not acting independently, and the Parliament was not sovereign. The provincial ministers were powerless. Flour smugglers were being backed by the ruling parties, he alleged.

CONGREGATION: The three-day religious congregation of the Jamaat-i-Islami ended at Balambat. Over 2,000 party members from Malakand, Fata and FR region attended the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, JI Azad Kashmir chapter chief Abdul Rashid Turabi accused the previous government of taking a U-turn on Pakistan’s Kashmir policy. He said jihad was negatively propagated through the electronic media during the Musharraf regime.

“It is the Jamaat-i-Islami, which is keeping jihad in Kashmir alive and the mujahideen have been boldly fighting against the Indian army’s atrocities,” he added.