JI urges nation to protest against LG law

Siraj says PPP has taken powers of mayor and handed them to CM

KARACHI:

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Ameer Sirajul Haq has appealed to the entire country to come forward on Sunday to show solidarity with the people of Karachi against the recently-passed local government law.

JI Pakistan Ameer Sirajul Haq announced this while addressing the party's sit-in being outside the Sindh Assembly building. On the eighth day of the protest, a large number of locals turned up to the venue and protested against the PPP government.

Among other prominent personalities, seasoned religious scholar Mufti Azam Pakistan Muneebur Rehman, Karachi Tajir Ittehdad President Aittque Mir, CPLC foundner Haji Nazim FG, Ulema Council central leader Maulana Zaffar Azad and others visited the sit-in and expressed solidarity to the protesters.

Sirajul Haq said the progress and development of Karachi was the progress and development of Pakistan. "Pakistan can't progress while keeping Karachi in the darkness," he added.

Read JI leader demands fresh census and LG polls

He said that the JI's struggle, be it in Karachi, Gwadar, Islamabad or Chitral, is not against any political party, it was against injustice, the system of infidelity and oppression.

"The worst opponents of the JI, including Pervez Musharraf and then MQM's Ishratul Ibad, had acknowledged the services rendered by JI's Nematullah Khan for Karachi," he said.

Comparing domestic and international situations, he said the modern world is conquering new skies, while in Karachi, pipelines for sewerage and water supply are passing through the same channels.

"The PPP has taken away powers of mayors and handover them to the chief minister. How much more power do you want to accumulate?" he asked, saying people of Sindh have supported the PPP. "However, these same people could not progress."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2022.