GUJRAT: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq says the nation cannot afford another ‘new Pakistan’ since it had already achieved the ‘objective’ twice; once in 1947 and then in 1971, adding only Islamic rule can make the country prosperous.

He was speaking to the participants of a donors conference organised by the local chapter of his party at Kharian late on Saturday.

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Besides JI leaders Dr Tariq Salim, Dr Ihasullah and others, senior PPP leader and former information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, former provincial finance minister Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, PML-N MNA and federal parliamentary secretary for defence Jaafar Iqbal Fatta Bhand were also present.

JI emir says it’s time to liberate the poor

Mr Haq vowed to launch a fresh movement to awake the nation, saying it was the time to liberate the poor from the clutches of feudal lords and a few ruling families. He said under the prevailing system it was ironical that the poor were being represented by the rich.

He said his was an Islamic, democratic and progressive party, adding that since he too belonged to the poor class of the country, he knew very well the miseries of the common men.

He said unemployment, lawlessness, political instability and economic crisis had been caused by the corrupt mafia that had been ruling the country since its inception.

He said those who were loyal to the Mughals and then the British invaders were actually still at the helm of the affairs in this part of the world and amassed more and more power to enslave the masses.

Mr Haq said Pakistan had become a land where no one could live according to his or her own ideology, belief or religion which was a kind of slavery as it was basic right of every human being.

Criticising US policies, he said the world powers were dragging the Muslim countries into conflicts and imposing wars on them through conspiracies. He deplored that wherever Islamic parties won the elections through democratic process, the conspirators created unrest through their agents in military or establishment.

He pledged his party would bring a change through a peaceful democratic struggle and by making its cadres acceptable to society as it happened in Turkey where change had been brought through penetration into society.

He said the JI was going to organise a three-day congregation at Minar-i-Pakistan, in Lahore from November 21 to 23 where religious minorities, besides the non-Muslim organisations from across the globe had also been invited.

Earlier, when Sirajul Haq reached the venue, the local JI workers, along with PPP leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira and Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, accorded him a warm welcome.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014