MANSEHRA: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has said the opposition parties and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf are two sides of the same coin and that the government is the continuation of the PML-N, Musharraf and PPP governments with the same polices.

“The PTI government has turned out to be an offspring of the governments of the PML-N, [former military ruler retired General] Pervez Musharraf and PPP. There is no difference in their foreign policies. The ruling PTI has taken the Rs31,000 billion foreign loans obtained by previous governments to a whopping Rs47,000 billion during the last two years,” Mr Siraj told a reference held in Oghi area here on Wednesday to pay homage to Rafique Tanoli, who was martyred on Aug 5 during a Kashmir rally in Karachi.

The JI leader said his party would think many times before participating in the multiparty conference being called by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman as there was no difference between the opposition and the PTI.

“Neither the opposition parties nor the ruling PTI are sincere about the resolution of the people’s problems, so we will think many times before making it to the proposed multiparty moot,” he said.

The JI emir said both PML-N and National Accountability Bureau were deceiving the people about the Lahore police’s action against Maryam Nawaz and her supporters. He said whatever the NAB had done was a political stunt and that it had miserably failed to recover the taxpayers’ looted money.

He demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible for the Karachi rally attack.

FLOUR SUPPLY: Food minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi has asked millers to ensure the uninterrupted wheat flour supply to the markets.

“The government has been providing you with wheat at subsidised rate. You should reciprocate our gesture by providing flour supply to people on subsidy,” Mr Lodhi told the office-bearers of Hazara Flour Mills Association who met him on Wednesday.

Chairman of the association Shahzada Khan and district president Mohammad Bashir informed the minister about the millers’ problems and sought corrective measures.

STRIKE: The paramedics observed a complete strike and took to the streets here on Wednesday demanding upgradation of all cadres in accordance with service structures.

The strike was witnessed in Mansehra, Torghar, Upper and Lower Kohistan, and Kolai-Palas districts.

President of the Paramedical Staff Association Khalid Khan told reporters here that if the demands were not met, the street protests would spread across the province.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2020