Siraj lambasts PM over ‘unprepared’ remarks

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq on Sunday lambasted Prime Minister Imran Khan over his comments of coming to power “without homework” and questioned why he assumed the office when he was “not ready” for the job.

"If he [PM Imran] was not prepared, then why did he take the Prime Minister's Office?,” he asked while addressing a rally at Qila Ground of Lakki Marwat district's Sarai Naurang town.

Last week, while giving the assessment of his government’s performance, PM Imran had said that never should a new government assume power without homework and without getting briefings.

“When I review my performance, we took three months only to understand [the system as] everything that we had been looking at from outside was altogether different after we came to power.

“And then, I must also share, for one and a half years we remained unable to even know the actual figures of different sectors, particularly the power sector. From one ministry at times the figures indicated we were performing very well and then sometimes some other figure showed we were not performing that well. So I am giving my assessment that never a new government should come to power without homework and without getting briefings,” the premier said.

The JI chief censured the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government’s policies and termed the prime minister and his cabinet a “failure” despite “cheating”.

"Imran Khan had said he would become the ambassador of Kashmir [but] the ambassador of Kashmir has handed over Kashmir to [India]," he said.

The senator added that the International Monetary Fund had been pressuring Pakistan due to which the power and gas tariffs were increasing.

He alleged that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the PTI were pursuing the agenda of “British imperialism” and “deceiving people” saying the JI had not joined the 11-party opposition alliance for the purpose.