QUETTA: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has said that the PTI government, despite completing three years of its rule, has failed to end poverty, resolve missing persons’ issue and restore law and order in Balochistan.

Speaking at the Meet the Press programme of the Quetta Press Club here on Thursday, he said there was no difference between the PTI government and previous governments of PPP and PML-N in destroying the economy by taking massive foreign and internal loans.

The former senator said that clean drinking water was still not available to 70 per cent residents of Quetta.

He said that different governments made announcements to spend hundreds of billions of rupees under different packages for development of Balochistan, but these packages remained on paper.

“Over 66 per cent children do not go to schools in Balochistan and the province is still the poorest in the country despite being the richest in terms of natural resources,” Mr Haq said.

He said the prime minister made tall claims to resolve the issue of missing persons, but the matter was yet to be resolved. “There is no improvement in the law and order situation in the province.”

He said the stark reality was that two per cent ruling elite had complete control on resources of the country and they were not interested in improving the life of the common man.

To end this situation of despondency, the Jamaat leader said, transparent and free elections under the principle of proportional representation were need of the hour to put the country back on track.

Referring to the situation in Afghanistan, the JI chief said that the defeat of US forces in the war-torn country was a victory of the Afghan people.

He said the people of Afghanistan must now start a dialogue to form a true representative government and restore peace in the country.

He said only the people of Afghanistan should decide the future of their country and all other countries of the world should avoid interfering in the internal matters of Afghanistan.

The provincial chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, Maulana Abdul Hashmi, and President of Quetta Press Club Abdul Khaliq Rind also attended the programme.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2021