UPPER DIR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has warned the government against doing away with Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and said such a bid would be a ‘suicide attack’ against the entire Constitution.

He was addressing a public meeting in Brawal area here on Tuesday.

JI provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, KP senior minister Inayatullah Khan, party’s district nazim Upper Dir Sahibzada Faseehullah, Dir and Brawal tehsil nazims Mir Makhzanud Din and Jehan Alam respectively, local leaders and workers of the party were present on the occasion.

He said his slogan against corruption would continue until corrupt politicians were held accountable.

Mr Siraj also came hard on US President Donald Trump for threatening Pakistan and said if the US couldn’t defeat Afghanistan, how it could challenge Pakistan, which had a well-trained army and 200 million people.

He said the US president should withdraw his statements against Pakistan otherwise Pakistani government should immediately stop the Nato supplies en route to Afghanistan via Pakistan.

The JI chief said he was going to begin a nationwide campaign against corruption in Sept, which would continue until all corrupt politicians were held accountable.

He said corrupt politicians wanted to do away with Articles 62 and 63 as they didn’t qualify for public offices under those constitutional provisions.

“The Jamaat will not allow corrupt elements to eliminate these articles from the Constitution,” he said.

Mr Mushtaq regretted that 73,000 Pakistani had been killed in the war against terrorism, which also cost the country a loss of $118 billion but even then, the US hurled threats on it besides leveling allegations against it of supporting terrorists.

He said the allegations by Mr Trump against Pakistan were unfair.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2017