KARACHI, Dec 8: The Naib-Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and senior leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, on Thursday criticized the government for purchasing two VIP jets for the President and Prime Minister while not reducing oil prices despite a decrease in POL prices internationally.

Addressing an All Parties Conference (APC) organized by the JI at the Idara Noor-i-Haq on “Price-hike and the indifferent attitude of rulers”, he said that over 60 per cent of the country’s population was deprived of clean drinking water but the rulers weren’t ready to curb their luxurious expenses yet.

The conference was attended by leaders of all major political and religious opposition parties.

Prof Ghafoor Ahmed criticized the present government for its tall claims of bringing economic reforms, stability and increasing the purchase power of the masses. He accused the government of economically murdering people.

“Can’t they see that people are committing suicides, mothers are selling their children due to poverty, but they (rulers) are praising all things that they have not been done for people,” he claimed.

He said there was a dictator ruling over people in the country, and he was not ready to listen to people and their representatives.

He said that, on one hand, the government was not reducing oil prices and, on the other, they were announcing increase in railway fares, which showed that the present rulers had nothing to do with grievances of the masses. This was besides the fact that the government was earning billions of rupees in the name of surcharges and taxes.

The JI leader said the issue of Kalabagh Dam had been raised only to divert the attention of the masses from real and genuine economic issues, adding that important assets of strategic importance were being privatized to make more people unemployed.

He called for initiating a collaborative struggle against the cruel government, saying all democratic forces should join hands on a one-point agenda for restoration of real democracy and peoples’ governance in the country.

Former Sindh Governor and PML-N Provincial Secretary Mamnoon Hussain claimed that people were tired of the present government, warning that if opposition parties did not act sensibly, people would stand up and could take the law and order into their hands.

He termed the current government a security risk for the country, saying all its policies were being devised as per the directions of the IMF, World Bank and other international monetary institutions, and most of the people ruling over the country were representatives of these organizations.

Leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Prof ND Khan said although the country was facing an external debt of $35 billion, the present government was still accepting more loans. This was at a time when Pakistan needed aid for rehabilitation of the millions of people left shelter-less due to the devastating earthquake, he added.

He claimed that the present government considered itself unanswerable to no one due to which it wasn’t taking any decision in the favour of the masses.

“We need to get rid of this kind of sham democracy. And since a military dictator claims to be a patron of democracy, people are ridiculing Pakistan and the Pakistani nation,” he added.

Secretary of Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) — Sindh Zain Ansari said the USSR had disintegrated due to an economic downfall and the same was going to happen to Pakistan if proper steps were not taken by genuine representatives of the masses.

He said corrupt and rejected elements had been picked and imposed over the people by a military dictator in the guise of a political government, but everybody in Pakistan and outside the world knew that the game was played with foreign assistance.

PPP Karachi president said the Parliament had been made a rubber stamp and now the fight for rights should be fought on the streets. He suggested that joint protest demonstrations should be held and rallies taken out by all political and religious parties.

He said the prices of essential commodities had been increased several hundred times but there was no increase in the income of the masses, owing to which people were publicly cursing the military rulers.

Leader of the JUI-F Maulana Abdul Karim Abid said the government was deliberately increasing the prices of all commodities so that people thought of nothing else but bread and butter.

He said other associated issues like growing crimes, and law and order had made the lives of people miserable.

He supported the initiation of a joint protest campaign against the government, and said the rulers should be compelled to reduce the prices of petroleum products.

A resolution presented by Muslim Pervez of the JI was jointly adopted, wherein the government was demanded to pay attention to grievances of the masses regarding poverty, price-hike and unemployment and immediately bring down POL prices.—PPI