KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has assured his party’s full cooperation to local government institutions in Karachi for the progress and development of the metropolis.

He has also urged the Sindh government to devolve powers to the elected local institutions so that they could solve people’s problems.

Speaking at the ‘meet the press’ programme of the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, Senator Haq said that contrary to the expectation that with the election of local government institutions peace and tranquillity would return to Karachi, the people of the city continued to face problems due to rifts between the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

He said that since the creation of the country some politicians continued to wield enormous influence in power corridors. Whether politicians were in power or military dictators, such individuals remained strong and worked to protect each others’ financial and political benefits and deprive people of their right to education, healthcare, freedom and justice, he added.

The JI chief said the National Action Plan had failed to produce the desired results, adding that recent terrorist attack on an educational institution had proved that the government had failed to implement NAP successfully.

He said that poverty, illiteracy and lack of justice were the main causes of lawlessness in the country, but the government had yet to come up with any plan to address these issues.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2016