LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq on Wednesday claimed that the politics of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the PPP and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is fully dependent on the support of the establishment.

Addressing a press conference at Mansoora, the senator said the statements by leaders of the ruling parties showed that powerful institutions were still providing them support, one way or the other, even though the latter had announced their impartiality and neutrality in politics.

He remarked that the ruling troika was only struggling to protect its own interests without paying any heed to the problems of the people, who stood in queues in many cities to purchase flour. The PDM, he said, was a continuation of the PTI rule and failed to fix the crises. Mismanagement and corruption were the biggest issues and the seriousness of these problems could be gauged from the Geneva climate conference where world leaders repeatedly emphasised upon the need for transparency in flood-relief funds.

Mr Haq said inflation was unstoppable and the government could not resolve the issue of rising unemployment. He said the prices of basic commodities rose more than 100 per cent in the last few months. He claimed the International Monetary Fund was pressuring the government to further increase electricity, gas and petroleum prices, adding the JI had launched a countrywide protest campaign against inflation and it would continue till the people got some relief.

The senator said while the ruling elite established properties and shell companies, the masses were kept deprived even from clean drinking water. He said millions of children were out of schools due to poverty and over 80pc of the population was deprived of clean water.

He said the past and present governments had destroyed the economy and every other sector.

To a question, the JI chief maintained all the MQM factions were merging out of fear of a defeat in the Karachi by-polls. The people of Karachi would reject both the MQM and the PPP in the upcoming elections, he stated.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2023