LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq has said the ruling troika is directly responsible for the unprecedented inflation and collapse of the national economy.

Addressing a protest rally against the skyrocketing inflation at The Mall on Saturday, he reminded the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the PPP of their anti-inflation rallies and long marches, questioning their performance since April, after they came into power.

Mr Haq said the policies of the PDM government were continuation of those of the last government of the PTI. He said it seemed the ruling elite had a consensus that they would keep the people deprived even of their basic needs. Regardless of the fact that common man was standing in long queues to purchase a bag of flour, the rulers were engaged in their fight for the protection of self-interest, he regretted.

He linked the inflation, poverty and economic disaster to the corruption and unfair distribution of national resources. Had there been a strong system of accountability, a majority of the so-called leaders of the main political parties would have been in prison, he said.

The JI chief said the governments, present and previous ones, had never used foreign loans for the public welfare, nor set the direction of the national economy right. Instead, he added, the borrowed money went into the pockets of the rulers.

Instead of putting more burden on the public, the ruling parties and their leaders should have paid the public debt from their own accounts, he said. He said the rulers looted the resources and made the country a laughing stock all over the work.

He said the ruling troika had been badly exposed and failed to fix the problems. They had been given an opportunity to serve the country repeatedly, but they disappointed the masses on every occasion, he said.

Haq said the country needed an honest and capable leadership and only the JI had the ability to put Pakistan on right track. He appealed to the people to vote for the JI in the coming election instead of further testing the already tested troika.

Published in Dawn, January 22th, 2023