DERA MURAD JAMALI: Ja­m­aat-i-Islami emir Senator Sira­jul Haq on Sunday announced launching a countrywide protest movement from Feb 20 against what he called anti-people polices of the government, price hike and flour and sugar crises in the country.

Speaking at a function at Al-Huda Public School, he said that from Feb 20 protest rallies would be organised and roads would be blocked in protest in all big and small cities and towns of the country.

JI emir for Balochistan Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi, emir for Sindh Asadullah Bhutto and other leaders of the party, including Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Abro and Maulana Abdul Wahid, were present on the occasion.

Senator Haq said: “Time has come to send the rulers to home as they are responsible for flour and sugar crises and the price hike that had broken the back bone of poor people in the country.”

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has completely failed in fulfilling promises Prime Minister Imran Khan had made with the people before the election.

He accused the government of handing over the country’s economy to the International Monetary Funds, saying that the PTI which promised to create 10 million jobs before the election had made over a million people jobless after coming into power.

Earlier, speaking at the District Bar Jaffarabad, Senator Haq deplored the statement of PM Khan that the army was standing behind him and termed it tantamount to dragging the national institution in politics.

He said that it was not the first time that the PTI government attempted to create embarrassment for the military. “The chief executive of the country was instead expected of claiming that the masses were standing behind him,” he said.

He lamented the rulers never let go any moment to issue irresponsible statements. The present rulers of the country, he said, were incompetent and knew nothing how to run the government.

The JI emir said that at the foreign front the government had failed in fighting the case of Kashmir and at home it had brought irreparable damage to the national economy by handing it over to IMF.

He said the irony was that the persons who were appointed by the government on key posts on the recommendation of the international lending agency were now quitting their jobs.

According to him, poor people are facing starvation due to inflation and thousands have lost their jobs due to flawed economic policies implemented by the government on the IMF’s dictation.

The JI chief criticised the prime minister for making rhetoric about mafias on daily basis, suggesting him (the PM) to look around if he was serious in taking action against those who were creating fake shortage of food items and earning billions of rupees through it. Mafias were sitting in the government and they made open claims about their access to Banigala, he added.

He said the public wanted to know the names of those who made their lives miserable and risked their livelihoods.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020