LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has lost the trust of the establishment which had helped it come into power in 2018.

Presiding over a party meeting at Mansoora here on Saturday, Mr Haq said the mini-budget bulldozed in the parliament further increased the government’s unpopularity among the masses.

“The IMF-proposed mini-budget will not help the ruling party to fix the economy. The government has failed to check inflation and unemployment and it further burdened the poor with Rs343 billion [taxes],” he said and added the government’s so-called measures to put the economy back on the track would bring more disaster for the already poverty-stricken people. The government pushed the country into the slavery of the IMF, he added.

The JI emir said the people were no more ready to listen to the fake promises and slogans of the ruling elite.

Reminding the prime minister of his promise to provide jobs to millions of youths and build five million houses, he said the government rather rendered millions jobless and failed to provide roof to even a single person in the last three and a half years of its rule.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022