HYDERABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) naib emir Merajul Huda Siddiqui has slammed the government over poor handling of the crisis arising out of the prolonged lockdown in the aftermath of coronavirus spread and lack of a transparent system to distribute ration among the needy persons.

Holding the government responsible for depriving people of food, he said it would have to answer about that neglect.

He was speaking to the deserving and needy people who came to collect charity food during a ration distribution programme at the Makki Shah secretariat of Al-Khidmat Foundation on Wednesday.

Mr Siddiqui said the religious leadership could bring about a real Islamic revolution at a time when people belonging to the working class were falling prey to abject poverty and hunger because of the poor strategies adopted by the government.

He alleged that the government mishandled the situation and failed to devise a transparent ration distribution system for the affected people.

The JI leader said that if the party came into the corridors of power, it would address all basic issues of the masses and provide them much relief. People trusted the JI and its Al-Khidmat Foundation and that was why philanthropists would prefer the JI and give it financial aid in order to serve the nation, he added.

He said that with the help of Allah, Pakistan would be able to save itself from the epidemic and contain its spread.

JI Sindh deputy general secretary Abdul Waheed Qureshi said that people must pray to Allah for protection from the virus. He said that because of the pandemic, the entire world was facing a tough time and entire humanity was at risk.

Because of the lockdowns, there was a serious economic meltdown and poor were unable to survive in this critical time all over the world.

JI Hyderabad emir Hafiz Tahir Majeed said that his party was serving people without any discrimination while the Sindh government had completely failed to give aid to people who were left in the lurch.

Thousands of families were rendered homeless, but the government remained unmoved and was doing politics in the face of the crisis.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2020