KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch has raised questions over effectiveness of targeted operation against criminals in Karachi and foreseen ‘astounding success’ of his party in the upcoming local government election.

He said that Karachi would get lasting peace and prosperity under a JI mayor and recalled the metropolis had witnessed development on a tremendous scale during the tenures of JI city nazim and mayor Abdul Sattar Afghani and Naimatullah Khan Advocate.

Mr Baloch, who was addressing public gatherings in Orangi Town and Malir here on Wednesday, said the government had failed to rein in inflation, lawlessness, poverty and unemployment. He asked the government “why peace could not be restored to Karachi despite targeted operation against criminals?”

He reiterated his party’s stand on privatisation and said the JI would not accept the sellout of national institutions, including PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills.

“The United States wants to make India its powerful ally in the subcontinent before withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan. The construction of a wall along the working boundary between Pakistan and India is a proof of its nefarious designs,” he said, adding the country’s sovereignty would not be safe without getting freedom from the US.