Looking ahead: Poor are behind bars and rich walk free, says Sirajul Haq

LAHORE:

All achievements made in the operation in Karachi will come to nought if the impasse between the Centre and the government in Sindh is not solved, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq said at the concluding session of the JI central workshop for party workers at Mansoora on Thursday.

He said that the row between the government at the centre and in Sindh did not augur well. “Neither side should make it about massaging egos.”

He said the issue of human trafficking could be addressed by overcoming problems created by poverty and unemployment. He said the country had a large population of jobless youth who were at a risk of falling prey to human traffickers.

He said the responsibility for this lay with the rulers who had thrust the people into an exploitative trap and had made it difficult for the masses to get basic necessities of life.

He said because of the government’s failure to provide jobs, hundreds of youth in search of work abroad had drowned at sea or been killed by security forces on the borders of European countries or the Pakistan-Iran border. Others had landed in jail, he added.

The JI chief said on the one hand, rulers were looting the country’s resources while on the other the poor were burdened with heavy taxes.

The government, he said, was bent on selling precious national assets at throw away prices.

The POL prices in the world market had fallen to a record low but the government was not prepared to give the masses any relief.

Haq said that the rulers were holding state institutions hostage and were using them for their personal or family interests.

He said the poor were handed strict punishments for petty crimes while the influential went scot free for the meanest of crimes. “That is one of the reasons behind the growing discontent among the general public.” He said the JI was striving to end VIP culture.

The JI chief welcomed the National Health Programme announced by the prime minister, but said that details on its implementation had not been made clear so far. “I wonder if it will meet the same fate as that of the Kisan Package announced by the premier months ago.”

A large number of women workers participated in the workshop. JI deputy chief Hafiz Muhammad Idrees was also among the participants.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2016.