GUJRAT: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan Emir Senator Sirajul Haq says politics is being done in the name of accountability and the PTI government continues the policies of the PML-N and the PPP as shown by the budget.

He said that like the PPP and PML-N governments in the past, the PTI too had presented a budget prepared by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since it had nothing to offer for the relief of the poor.

He was speaking at an Eid Milan party organised by the Gujrat chapter of the JI Youth Wing here on Friday. Punjab JI emir Dr Tariq Saleem, Kissan Board Pakistan President Advocate Nisar Ahmed, Gujrat JI emir Ziaullah Shah and Dr Kashif Adnan also spoke to the gathering.

Mr Haq said people were disappointed with the performance of the PTI and they should realise that yet another experiment with the country had failed. He said his party would stage a massive rally in Lahore on June 16 to register its protest over the budget and anti-people policies of the government. It would be followed by protest demonstrations in Karachi, Multan and Faisalabad in the current month.

Criticising the budget, he said the rulers would always try to justify the increase in petrol prices for being an imported item. How could they justify the increase in the prices of locally produced commodities such as cooking oil and sugar.

He lamented that the government had proposed an increase in the sugar price from July 1 by Rs 3.65 but the sugar prices in the market had already been jacked up as he had himself checked the price of sugar in Islamabad where it was being sold at Rs80 per kilogram. He said the sugar mafia had got the price of sugar increased whereas the farmers who produce the sugarcane did not receive the value of their crops.

He said he had served as finance minister twice in KP and successfully worked on loan-free budgets in the province which were also acknowledged by the international institutions.

He said the nation had tested different political parties and all had made false pledges and commitments. He assured the nation that his party would steer the country out of crisis.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2019