BATKHELA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said that workers would arrange a dharna in front of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company office if excessive loadshedding continued in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a public meeting here on Friday, he said that people had been protesting against loadshedding across the country, including Punjab. He said that ruling party had failed to fulfill its commitment regarding ending power shortages in the country.

He said that inefficiency and corruption were the main causes of power shortages. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had potential to generate cheap electricity, but the government was ignoring it. He alleged that the government was plundering national wealth by producing expensive electricity.

Mr Haq expressed concern over the plight of detained Pakistanis in Gulf States. He said thousands of inhabitants of Malakand Division who went to Gulf States for employment had been put in jails in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, while the federal government had become a silent spectator.

The JI chief claimed that 2017 would prove the year of accountability. He vowed that JI workers would carry out wall-chalking against corruption across the country. He said that after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif now former president Asif Ali Zardari would face corruption cases in the Supreme Court.

The senator termed the statement of Asif Zardari about recovery of plundered wealth at a public meeting in Malakand joke of the 21st century. He said that JI’s anti-corruption drive had forced “champion of corruption” to demand accountability.

Mr Haq said that Nawaz Sharif should resign for 60 days because two of the three judges of the Supreme Court had given judgment against him in the Panama Papers case.

He promised that if came to power, the JI would give old age allowance to the people above the age of 70 and unemployment allowance to the jobless youth. He said the JI would ensure economic and social justice in the society.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017