PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq on Thursday said Pakistan didn’t need a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund or loans from other countries to handle the current financial crisis if the government brought back the country’s looted money from abroad.

Addressing a mass wedding ceremony here, Mr Siraj said the government was responsible for bring the country’s looted wealth back.

“Our country neither requires any bailout package or donations for building dams if the government carries out across-the-board accountability,” he said urging the government to fulfil its commitment in this regard.

He demanded that the government recover looted national wealth and spend it on the people’s welfare and development of health and education.

The Al-Khaidmat Foundation, charity wing of the JI, organised the function in which 50 couples got married. Relatives of the couples and JI office-bearers attended the ceremony.

Mr Siraj said the government had become a tax collection machine, while rulers spent thje taxpayers’ money on their luxurious lives.

He said the government should begin across-the-board accountability and take concrete measures to bring looted wealth from abroad.

“We’d demanded action against 436 people, whose names appeared in the Panama Leaks case, but ironically nothing happened,” he said.

The JI chief said the current system only protected financial and social interests of the elite class and therefore, the people demanded its elimination.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018