TIMERGARA, May 3: The Jamaat-i-Islami appealed to Abbottabad Commission here on Thursday to summon Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar over his comments about the last year operation of US forces wherein Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.

Flanked by JI district chief Maulana Asadullah, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, Malik Sher Bahadar, provincial deputy chief of the party Mushtaq Ahmad told a news conference that US drone strikes in Pakistan were tantamount to massacre as innocent people were being killed in those attacks.

He said that US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan C Crocker’s indication that drone strikes in Pakistan could continue after 2014 showed apathy of the government and its parliament. “It means that the US is not ready to accept the conditions, set by the parliament of our country,” the JI leader said.

Mr Ahmad said that consultations for holding a long march against the present government, especially Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, were underway. “We are in close contacts with other opposition parties and soon will announce a long march towards Islamabad,” he said.

The JI leader said that political situation of the country was getting worse with each passing day. He said that according to an authentic report of the Amnesty International, Rs8,400 billion had been embezzled in the country during the last four years.

Mr Ahmad alleged that funds were embezzled in Zakat distribution, Haj admission, developmental schemes and transfer and posting of government officials. The government, he said, was blindly following the policies of World Bank and International Monetary Fund that would enslave the entire nation.

“Gas and electricity are not available in the country. The nation is fed up with power outages and gas loadshedding,” the JI leader said. He added that inflation was increasing in the country.

“People are committing suicide owing to poverty while rulers are leading luxurious life,” he said. Owing to uncontrolled corruption at every level, he said, no one was ready to make investment in the country.

Mr Ahmad said that his party was launching a mass contact movement and he was sure that JI would form next government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.