NAWABSHAH: Jamaat-i-Islami Sindh emir Mohammad Hussain Mehanti has said that it is high time people got rid of feudal system.

Talking to journalists after inaugurating the party’s election office in Tando Adam on Saturday, he said that regularly held elections were life of a democratic society. No country could move forward if elections were rigged, he said.

He said the country’s economy had been on the decline for the past 76 years while politicians were busy bickering with each other like spectators in a cricket match.

He said that Pakistan Peoples Party that had been ruling Sindh for last 15 years had destroyed the province in all sectors. Inflation, loadshedding of electricity, gas and unavailability of drinking water had made peoples’ lives miserable, he said.

He said the real reason behind inflation was corruption and imposition of unbearable taxes on the poor. The electricity tariff jumped from Rs12 to Rs60, gas tariff rose by 200 per cent whereas fuel prices hiked to Rs300 a litre but the rulers’ hunger remained limitless, he said.

He said that when Pakistan came into being, a rupee was equal to a dollar but the poor governance and corruption had caused one dollar to rise to Rs300 and burdened the country under billions of dollars debts, he said.

Billions were received as grant and donation in the name of flood victims and devastated areas but the money went missing whereas the party’s welfare wing, Al Khidmat, built houses and provided ration and tents to the victims, he said.

Mehanti said that it was peoples’ inalienable right to vote and elect candidates of their choice in freely and fairly held elections.

Sanghar JI emir Abdul Ghafoor Ansari and other party leaders Abdul Rasheed Rajput, Talat Mehmood Qureshi, Jaan Mohammed, Zaheeruddin Babar, Faisal Mughal and Raja Waseem were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2024