LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has said that national affairs cannot be improved even if the PTI, the PDM, and the PPP are given 100 years to rule the country because the leaders of these parties are facilitators of flour, sugar, ghee, oil, and fertilizer mafias, which manage elections for their patrons.

He was speaking at a press conference here on Sunday.

He said that inflation did not bother the ruling parties even if petrol costs Rs1,000 per litre and flour Rs500 per kg because these were the clubs of capitalists and this “corrupt troika” completely failed to give good governance.

He said common people were paying 42 types of taxes, while the ruling class was enjoying 100 types of privileges.

He claimed that the 55-year record of inflation has been broken by the PDM government as prices have gone up by 27.6pc against 5pc all over the world in 2023.

He said the country had accepted the 23rd IMF programme when 22 previous plans had failed to improve the economy. He said that through the mini-budget, taxes worth Rs170 billion were imposed, while after three months, the government would impose more taxes worth Rs560 billion.

Mr Haq said that after Defense Minister Khwaja Asif’s “confession” that politicians, bureaucrats, and the establishment economically destroyed the country, the minister should resign on moral grounds.

He said that if former president Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, PTI chairman Imran Khan, and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar returned to the nation their wealth over and above their requirements, it would be enough to steer the country out of the debt crisis.

He regretted that all of them were among the privileged beneficiaries of Tosha Khana and government properties and assets, wasting national money by establishing four offices against the need for one. He alleged that the path of Jamaat-e-Islami to power has been blocked by ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ forces.

He said that a convention of JI-backed candidates for the provincial assembly would be held, at which he would announce a roadmap for the nation to get rid of all the problems.

He, however, said that he was against civil disobedience and believed in the supremacy of the constitution and the law. He would like to see national and provincial assembly elections held on the same day in the country.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023