MINGORA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said on Sunday that the youths in the country were being forced to take their lives because of unemployment under the tenure of current Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government.

He was addressing a large gathering of his party workers at the Nishat Chowk after launching a countrywide campaign against price hike and unemployment titled “Awami March” which began from Green Chowk in Mingora on Sunday.

He said the PTI government had failed and was the worst in Pakistan’s 72-year history as the rulers had looted 200 million Pakistanis instead of addressing their issues.

“Today, the unending number of people on the roads against the government policies attest that they are not satisfied with the 18-month performance of the ‘fake’ government,” he said.

He censured Prime Minister Imran Khan saying the upholders of the slogan of Riyasat-i-Madina ironically increased the interest rate in the country. “The PTI made the country a slave by imposing the IMF [International Monetary Fund] on the country,” he said, alleging that the “invisible” IMF was ruling the country.

Condemning the government’s policy on Kashmir, he claimed that in 1971 Lt Gen Abdullah Khan Niazi handed the army to India and today his successor Imran Khan had revoked the special status of India-held Kashmir.

Addressing the nationwide issue of food inflation, he said, “the rulers increased prices of wheat flour and sugar to benefit their few near and dear ones while the poor masses were crushed, farmers were sidelined and pushed to the wall.”

He said that the two-member family of the prime minister could not make both ends meet on Rs200,000 monthly salary, then, “how can a family survive on Rs15,000 a month and afford to pay Rs8,000 electricity bill and Rs4,000 for gas bill within this salary,” he added, referencing the prime minister’s comments to the business community telling them that he was unable to cover his household expenses from his salary. “The PTI government has not created any social welfare programme for the poor public,” he further said.

He also demanded the government exempt Malakand division from all kinds of taxes till the next 20 years.

Earlier, JI Swat district chief Mohammad Ameen addressed the gathering.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2020