PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said here on Sunday that a few hundred people earned billions of rupees through ‘fraudulent’ agreements with independent power producers (IPP) and for provision of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

He stated that JI would mobilise people against all such agreements and would recover every single penny from them.

“These corrupt people exist in all the three ruling parties and they loot people by becoming part of every government,” he told the participants of a training camp at Markaz-i-Islami in the provincial capital.

The JI emir said that the country’s total power generation capacity was 49,000 megawatts while the requirement was only 24,000 to 25,000 megawatts but despite that the government had subjected people to loadshedding.

He claimed that in the last few weeks during US-Iran war, the government collected Rs180 billion levy and got Rs1,234 billion during the current financial year.

Hafiz Naeem says a few hundred people earned billions through ‘fraudulent’ accords; criticises provincial govts for outsourcing schools

The JI chief said that more than 10 million children were out of school in Punjab, while over five million children were out of school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By outsourcing government schools, both students and teachers were being exploited, he added.

He criticised the establishment for clinging to the 100-year-old system imposed by the British. He stated that administrative, economic and political powers had been handed over to bureaucracy whereas the Constitution required those powers to be held by local governments.

Rehman said that the US was a terrorist state that supported Israel in Gaza leading to a massacre of Muslims. He added that Israel had been killing children in Gaza for last two years, yet the three parties in the government remained silent.

He claimed that after the humiliating defeat in war with Iran, the US president wanted to sit at the negotiating table.

The JI chief said that Americans had always stabbed Pakistan in the back and destroyed peace. Reconciliation should be pursued, but it must be kept in mind that America had never stood with Pakistan, he added.

He said that American fleet never arrived during 1971 Pak-India war, while in 2001, Pakistan got nothing but militancy and destruction of its economy for siding with America.

Rehman said that Iran had opened the Strait of Hormuz but closed it again owing to blockade by the US. He added that the US was talking about negotiations while at the same time threatening Iran.

He stated that JI would emerge as a major public force in the local body elections across the country. He said that the country needed honest leadership. He said that some parties raised voice for democracy, but never had no democracy within their ranks.

He announced that JI would include millions of people through its membership movement across the country from April 25 to May 15.

Former chief JI Sirajul Haq, Liaquat Baloch, Dr Attaur Rahman, Dr Usama Razi, Sheikh Usman Farooq, Abdul Waseh, Maulana Mohammad Ismail and other leaders of the party also addressed the training camp.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2026