SWABI/BATKHELA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq has asked the government to adopt a bold Kashmir policy keeping in view the disputed region’s ideological and geographical affinity with Pakistan.

Talking to mediapersons after addressing a function at a religious institution at Karnal Sher Khan village in Swabi on Friday, he said Kashmir was an integral part of Pakistan, and according to the principles of partition, it should have been acceded to Pakistan.

He said the JI planned to hold a big rally in Islamabad on Dec 22 to highlight the Kashmir issue. He said the PTI government’s Kashmir policy had failed to generate any ray hope for the innocent Kashmiris. Mr Haq said more people had been pushed below the poverty line since the PTI government took power because of the rising prices of essential commodities and unemployment.

The JI leader said the government was only imposing new taxes and had failed to turn around the economy. He said the people were unable to make both ends meet in the prevailing situation.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan has alleged that the present rulers have sold Kashmir and that the JI would hold ‘Kashmir march’ in the federal capital on Dec 22.

Speaking at a function at a private school in Batkhela the other day, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was not ‘Tipu Sultan’ but ‘Twitter Sultan’, adding he (Imran) wanted to free Kashmir through media.

Mr Ahmed held the present government responsible for ruining the national economy. He said appreciation of dollar against Pakistani rupee was unprecedented. He claimed the government had taken 11 billion dollars foreign loans in just one year.

He claimed that 200 per cent increase was made in electricity bills owing to inclusion of eight types of taxes. He said the government had admitted that it was charging 34 to 45 per cent per litre as different taxes from consumers in diesel and petrol price.

Regarding lawyers attack on PIC in Lahore, the JI provincial chief said that FIR should be registered against Punjab chief minister and high-ranking police officers. He regretted that he didn’t expect such an action from the legal fraternity.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2019