CHARSADDA: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq on Tuesday said the country’s economic situation won’t improve as long as the Pakistan Democratic Movement and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were at the helm of affairs.

He also claimed that the country was on the verge of defaulting on foreign loans.

“If state institutions are functioning independently and the military establishment has no role in politics, then the PDM and PTI will lose the battle for survival,” Mr Siraj told a condolence reference for JI founding member Sardar Ali Khan Baba in Sheikhabad area here.

The JI chief said the PTI and PDM were fighting each other to serve their own interests and not national.

He said the IMF had no answer to the nation’s problems and the solution lied in the introduction of the economic system advocated by Islam.

Mr Siraj alleged that 18 influential people in the country possessed Rs4 trillion billion worth of ill-gotten assets.

JI chief says PTI, PDM fighting to serve own interests

“Land, drug, flour, sugar and onion mafias have representation in both PDM and PTI. They’ve taken politics hostage,” he said, calling those people “economic terrorists.”

The JI emir said elections should be held only after neutral governments were set up in the centre and provinces to ensure freeness, fairness and transparency of the electoral exercise.

He praised Mr Baba for leading a simple life despite being a landlord besides promoting the teachings of Islam and the cause of the party.

Mr Siraj said Mr Bacha was a close confidant of party founder Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi and served the party as its provincial emir for 30 years consecutively.

He said the people had tested Sharifs, Zardaris and Imran Khan time and again, so they won’t vote for them in future.

The JI chief said the PTI and PDM were the facilitators of “international establishment” and had no policy of their own.

“We [Jamaat] have alternative economic and education systems for the country’s progress,” he said.

The other speakers included former district nazim Naseer Mohammad Khan, former MNA Fazal Mohammad Khan, former federal minister Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, district bar association president Mujibur Rehman and elder Hamza Khan.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2023