Rise up: Our rulers are hostage to imperial designs: Sirajul Haq

JI chief urges Muslims to set aside their differences and unite to a common goal

LAHORE: Muslims must put an end to their internal differences and be united against their enemies, Senator Sirajul Haq, head of the Jamaat-i-Islami, said in an Eid greetings message on Monday.

Imperialist powers have thrust Muslims into a war to grab and control their resources, he said. “Our rulers are incompetent and all too willing to be enslaved by these imperial powers.” He said these leaders were the agents of the enemy rather than leaders of the Ummah. “They are responsible for the problems the Muslim Ummah face today.”

Haq said enemy forces amassing under the banner of the USA had massacred millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Now they have daggers pointing at Syria and Yemen.” He said Muslims in Palestine and Kashmir had sacrificed a lot in the last seven decades but the United Nations and other so-called human rights champions had turned a blind eye towards their plight.

The JI chief said India had enjoyed the full support of the US, which is why it had become a serious threat to world peace. He said that the US has been interfering in South Asia with the intent to make India a regional hegemon. The US-India collusion against the CPEC in Pakistan has already risen to the surface, he said.

“Modi’s statement on Balochistan is irrefutable proof of New Delhi’s nefarious designs against our country.” Haq said that security agencies had solid evidence of India’s involvement in terrorist activities in Peshawar, Quetta, and Karachi.

Pakistan’s rulers were aware of New Delhi’s designs yet they were keen to forge a friendship with India against the nation’s sentiments, he said.

Haq said corruption and plunder by the country’s rulers had badly shaken people’s confidence in them. “They have been blocking an investigation into Panama Leaks…their bank accounts abroad are fit to burst with trillions of rupees and foreign currency…yet they burden the masses with price hikes and heavy taxes and secure huge loans from the IMF and the World Bank.”

The JI chief said the situation called for a strong and sustained movement, “like the Pakistan Movement”, to pull the country out of the mess it was in and to bring confidence to the masses.

He also urged the affluent to look after the less fortunate especially on the occasion of Eidul Azha in order to earn Allah’s pleasure and goodwill. “Eid is an occasion when we must share our happiness with the less fortunate.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2016.