KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq has said that the postponement of next general elections in the name of accountability would not be acceptable.

“Our demand is accountability of not a family but all corrupt elements and all 435 persons whose names appeared in the Panama Papers be held accountable and punished for plundering the national wealth,” he said while speaking at a party event here at the Kakri ground on Sunday.

He said while the restoration of original laws relating to Khatm-i-Nubuwat augured well the government must honour its commitment of taking action against those responsible for amending the law.

Referring to the issues confronting the people of Karachi, the JI chief held the provincial and local governments responsible for the problems.

Without naming the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he said people of Karachi were facing water, power, transport, health and cleanliness problems and the party which repeatedly got the mandate “totally failed to deliver”.

He asked the people to support the JI as it was the only party capable to solve their pressing issues.

“Jamaat-i-Islami is striving to turn the country into an Islamic welfare state where oppressed people would get their due right because Pakistan is not the name of a region but an ideology for whose creation Muslims had given unprecedented sacrifices and created the state under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah which would be moulded on the pattern of Madina,” he said. “We want to make Pakistan as per the vision of our Quaid.”

He regretted that Pakistan was not running in accordance with the principles of Islamic polity and the successive governments had always looked towards the US and Western powers and had made the people their slaves.

He said people had to rise against the rulers and support the JI so that the party could eliminate the “slavery of America and pro-American rulers”.

Holding the rulers responsible for “economic terrorism”, he said that they entangled the people under an oppressive and compulsive system. “We are against every type of terrorism and want to create a prosperous society where women, children and all minorities will have full protection, due status and rights, equal opportunities of justice, treatment and education.”

Senator Haq said that the situation in interior of Sindh was no different from Africa where people had no water to drink and were deprived of their fundamental rights.

He said although the people of Sindh had always given their votes to the Pakistan Peoples Party, its leadership had always deceived them and failed to solve their basic problems.

He said a revolution against corrupt and feudal system was the only way for the solution of the people’s problems.

The meeting was also addressed by JI leaders Dr Mairajul Huda, Hafiz Naeemur Rahman and others.

They said that from 1988 till today the MQM and PPP had formed governments for five times and they jointly pushed Karachi towards destruction.

They recalled that around four decades ago Nusrat Bhutto had promised the people of Lyari to turn their locality into Paris but till today the PPP government had failed to make a single school in Lyari.

In Larkana, the government had spent Rs92 billion development funds only on paper; whereas practically not a single rupee was spent there.

They said that the Pak Sarzameen Party and the MQM were on a mission to push Karachi 20 years behind, but this time they would fail to sell old wine in new bottle.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2017