LOWER DIR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq on Saturday declared Prime Minister Imran Khan a man driven by ego and said he should have visited the grieving Hazara community members in Quetta much earlier for consolation.

“The Hazara families would have buried the victims of Mach attack on the first day of the tragedy had the PM visited them earlier,” he told reporters after attending a wedding ceremony here.

He said the victims’ families had been protesting for last six days in freezing cold, but it did not affect the premier.

“I met the elders of the Hazara community in Quetta and observed they were rightly protesting the barbaric attack,” Mr Haq said, adding the tragedy had grieved the whole nation.

The JI leader said no one knew who was running the affairs of the government.

He said the Jamaat had announced a schedule of protest rallies across the country against the government’s policies.

He said the Senate elections would be held on time as the PDM component parties had agreed to take part in them.

Meanwhile, addressing a monthly JI congregation at Ahyaul Uloom Balambat the other day, Jamaat leader Dr Attaur Rehman said western powers had destroyed the political and economic systems in Islamic countries.

He said family was the basic unit of social system in an Islamic society, where parents were responsible for ensuring better upbringing of their children, insisting the west was now trying to destroy the family system in Islamic countries through social media platforms.

He said the only solution to protect family system was following the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.

MUQAM VISIT: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz provincial president Ameer Muqam has said the PDM’s public rally in Batkhela on Jan 11 will prove a referendum against the government.

Addressing the PML-N office-bearers from different districts of the Malakand division in Ouch on Saturday, he asked them to fully participate in the rally.

He insisted the opposition parties’ alliance wanted to rid the people of the current government and establish a popular government through a free and fair election.

He alleged the Punjab government was inaugurating the projects launched during the PML-N tenure.

Meanwhile, a youth identified as Fahimuddin of Samarbagh was killed when two vehicles collided in Zwal Baba area on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2021