JI chief lambasts PTI govt for failure to garner global support on Kashmir

Criticises the party's central govt, rising inflation and unemployment

HYDERABAD: Rebuking the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government over its handling of the Kashmir issue and the country's governance, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP) Ameer Sirajul Haq has said the government's diplomacy over Kashmir has fallen by the wayside. Haq, who led a rally of thousands of people in Hyderabad on Sunday to express solidarity with the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir, emphasised that seeking a resolution through dialogue appeared out of the question.

'Diplomatic failure'

"The PTI government has failed on all fronts," he said as he referred to how Saudi Prince Muhammad Bin Salman gave his plane to Prime Minister Imran Khan for his visit to the United States of America but at the time of voting in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, he favoured India.

He asked the government to stop looking towards the United Nations with the hope that it will help settle the dispute judiciously, pointing out that the intergovernmental organisation has never acted impartially when Muslims were a party to a conflict.

Haq contended that US President Donald Trump will never act as a mediator between Pakistan and India. "Trump's boat is sinking in the US and he is talking about supporting Pakistan." Commenting on PM Khan's on-going visits to Iran and Saudi Arabia for mediation, the JIP chief said that Kashmir should be more important than Yemen for Pakistan.



"We know what plans are being prepared in Islamabad for distracting people's attention from Kashmir." He blamed PM Khan and his federal ministers for damaging national unity over the Kashmir issue and said the PM never tried to take the political parties in confidence even once.

Pointing to the Indian nexus with the US and Israel and the latter's direct support to India in suppressing the people of Kashmir, he accentuated that the time has come for jihad.

"We have told the government that if you want to protect Pakistan then the fight for this sake will have to be fought in Srinagar. Don't wait for the day when the Indian army enters the territory beyond the line of control," he said. "God willing the way Kabul became a graveyard for the US forces, we will make the streets of Kashmir a graveyard for the Indian army."

Haq bewailed that Kashmir has been turned into a graveyard during the on-going curfew completing ten weeks. "Women have been seen carrying the coffins of their men." He said the Kashmiri people want to become a part of Pakistan but the country's rulers are not playing an effective role towards that end.

Failures on the home front

The JIP chief likened the PTI's central government with Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Sindh government, arguing that there is no difference between the two parties which only want to persist in keeping the power to serve their own interests. He said the PTI government has unleashed inflation and the economy is spiraling downwards. "The nation cannot wait indefinitely for good days as the people's patience is wearing thin."

According to him, 14 months have passed since the PTI came to power but so far the ruling party has failed to honour its promises of providing employment and shelter to the poor people and unemployed youth.

The provincial and federal governments have failed to resolve the problem of solid waste disposal in Karachi as the metropolis brims with garbage heaps scatted in thousands of neighbourhoods, he added.

He asked the youth to rebel against the prevailing system of cruelty and injustice in the country. JIP leader Asadullah Bhutto, Muhammad Hussain Mehnati, MPA Syed Abdur Rasheed, Zubair Gondal, Hafiz Tahir Majeed, and others also addressed the rally.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2019.