DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said that the federal budget has been prepared under the dictates of IMF to exploit the people of Pakistan.

He was addressing a public meeting at the Shaheed Haq Nawaz Park here on Friday night.

Mr Haq said that the interest-based economic system was being abolished in the US and UK while Pakistani rulers were still following it. He claimed that 98 per cent of Pakistan’s economy was interest-based and devoted to debt servicing.

He said that if the current government supported the interest-based economy in the budget his party would launch a movement against the corrupt system.

The JI chief said that the government should build an interest-free economy by implementing the decision of the Federal Shariat Court.

“I will meet the leaders of all parties, including PML-N, PPP and PTI, to build a consensus against the interest-based economy. A national dialogue should be started to put the economy on Islamic principles,” he said.

Mr Haq said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf should dissolve the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly if it wanted general elections in the country. He said that his party was starting a movement against inflation and interest-based economic system and this struggle would continue till achievement of the desired results.

He said that the rulers had deprived the people, including that of Karachi, of their rights and power loadshedding was taking place in every corner of the country.

The JI chief said that promises made with the people of South Punjab also remained unfulfilled. He said PTI continued to befool the people in the name of “Riyasat-i-Madina”.

ARRESTED: The city police here have arrested the alleged killer of an 18-year-old transgender person.

Police spokesman Imtiaz Ali said the suspect, Kaleem, a resident of Government Quarters, Women Hospital, Dera, had shot dead Raheel aka Shiza, a resident of Sharifpura area of Lahore. The transgender person had died at the DHQ hospital, Dera.

Ali Hassan aka Pari, a friend of the deceased, said Shiza had refused an offer to befriend Kaleem. A police team arrested the suspect from a passenger vehicle near Kokaar village as he was trying to escape to Islamabad.

Published in Dawn,June 12th, 2022