JI reminds govt '32 days left'

Hafiz Naeem warns of long march if agreement with his party not implemented

HYDERABAD:

After ending its sit-in protest in Islamabad after inking an agreement with the government for implementation of its demands, Jamaat-e-Islami has warned of resorting to long march protests again if results do not surface in a month. The JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman while addressing his party's workers in Hyderabad on Wednesday also told that they are poised to make a country-wide strike against inflation and electricity bills on August 28 successful.

"Only 32 days are left for the government to materialize its promise," he cautioned. The JI and the government had agreed to kick-start actualization of the demands in a span of 45 days to dissuade the former from continuing its sit-in demonstration in Islamabad.

"You are so afraid of our protest that you are staging a drama of providing just two-month relief to the people of Punjab in the electricity bills," Rehman deplored while referring to an announcement of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's government in Punjab. He reiterated that the JI wants to see a reduction in the inflated rates of electricity across the country and not in the form of a two-month transient relief but a permanent one.

The JI's leader also raked Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) over the coals by saying that the Sindh government has become an epitome of bad governance. "One dynatic family and 40 feudal lords. This is the PPP." He also criticized the PPP's chairman MNA Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

"Bilawal often goes to temples to participate in the Hindu community's rituals but he shows no concern when Hindu traders are abducted for ransom." He asserted that JI will bring about a change in political leadership in Sindh and the province will be liberated from the clutches of feudal lords and the corrupt mafia.

Rehman said Balochistan is dealing with numerous problems and uncountable people of that province are also without a trace. "Those who are responsible to follow the constitution and to enforce the law, the same people are subjecting the people to enforced disappearance." He expressed concern that the prevailing circumstances in Balochistan are infusing hatred and racism in the minds of Balochi people.

The JI chief asked his workers to make the August 28 strike successful by mobilizing the people. He informed that the party is starting a membership campaign from September 1.