'JI ready for countrywide sit-in'

Hafiz Naeem asks workers to wait for leadership call

RAWALPINDI:

Jamat-e-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has demanded the government to accept its demands otherwise the party will announce its strategy after two days.

Addressing the participants of sit-in at Liaquat Bagh, the JI chief challenged the government to hold negotiations in front of media, adding the 250 million people and overseas Pakistanis have pinned hopes on the successful outcome of the sit-in.

He expressed resolve to prolong the sit-in till fulfillment of the demands, adding, "We are waiting for the government's answer and then a new movement will come to fore."

He said the workers will have to sit on the roads and they will have to wait for the leadership's call. "Our sit-in is becoming a challenge for all the political parties," said the JI chief.

The people have decided to defuse the electricity bombs, factories are shutting down, people are becoming jobless and traders are also worried, Hafiz Naeem pointed out.

Some members of the government are involved in the plundering, he said, adding JI has emerged as a political reality as people from Sindh, Balochistan and K-P are participating in the movement.

The JI chief said his party has shouldered the responsibility to get the tariff of electricity reduced. The party has to help people of the country to get rid of IPPs, said Naeem.

He said the politicians, bureaucracy and army generals have destroyed all departments with their luxurious spending. They want to sell off PIA, railways and steel mills. If an investor wants to set up an industry, the hurdles are created in his way, added the JI chief.

It is neither an army nor a political institution but a specific class which hides each-others' corruption, remarked Hafiz Naeem.

"The racket started by the PPP government while Musharraf and the PML-N government cashed in on the situation," he said.