JI wants election fought on anti-corruption agenda

Siraj demands audit of financial dealings in Musharraf, Zardari and Nawaz governments

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has urged all political parties to contest the next general elections on a one-point agenda of eliminating corruption and hold all those involved in looting the national treasury accountable.

Sirajul Haq, while addressing a reception in his honor at the Islamic Cultural Centre, Oslo, Norway stressed that plunderers of public money should not be allowed to go scot-free and be accounted for every penny. He demanded that the financial dealings during the governments of Musharraf, Zardari and Nawaz be audited. The JI chief said a fresh NRO would not be accepted and every conspiracy against the nation would be resisted.



Sirajul Haq said that Nizame Mustafa was the solution to all the problems facing the country and MMA would contest the 2018 election on this national agenda. Criticizing Nawaz Sharif for his policies, the JI chief said that the ousted prime minister talked about a liberal and secular Pakistan. But he ignored the fact that Pakistan came into being in the name of Islam, a cause for which thousands of people laid down their lives.

Describing corruption as the root cause of all social, economic and political problems, Sirajul Haq said that unless and until the evil of corruption was stamped out, a new crisis would keep popping up every now and then. He said terrorism, lawlessness, poverty and illiteracy had borne out of corruption. The JI chief remarked that people who were bound to safeguard public money were pursuing their own goals and looting the wealth with both hands.

He stressed that Pakistan was gifted with vast natural resources including gold, oil and coal. The oil reserves of Balochistan were more than those of Saudi Arabia and Iran but no efforts were underway for their exploration.

 

JI chief said that the finance minister had admitted in parliament that $200 billion had been transferred to foreign countries. But the actual transferred money was much more. Similarly, he claimed, a former NAB Chairman had admitted that corruption of 12 billion rupees was underway in the country every day. He said that if this loot and plunder was controlled, the country would be back on the path of progress within a year.

Meanwhile, acting Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami  Liaqat Baloch, in Mansoora said any foreign pressure for striking a deal between PML-N and state institutions would defame the democratic system and weaken the country.