JI invites PTI workers to join movement

Hafiz Naeem slams governance, urges system change

TIMERGARA:

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Sunday said that governance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, much like at the federal level, had been reduced to slogans, lamenting that citizens continue to be deprived of basic services despite more than a decade of uninterrupted rule by a single party.

Addressing a public gathering titled "Badal Do Nizam" (Change the System) at Dir Stadium in Upper Dir, he said that even after 14 years of the same party in power, people in the province still lack access to healthcare, education and fundamental rights.

He slammed the outsourcing of public schools, calling it "a clear admission of failure" instead of improving the government education system.

He said the country had been pushed under a heavy debt burden, claiming that national debt had risen from Rs55 trillion to Rs85 trillion in just four years, while "rulers are taking nearly Rs20 billion in fresh loans every day" as the public grapples with inflation and economic hardship.

The JI chief said the public had been misled for 79 years through slogans and symbolism, while the bureaucracy continued to operate on a colonial-era system that treats citizens as subjects.

He said the governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab were extensions of one another, adding that outsourcing public education institutions amounted to an acknowledgment of governance failure.

He pledged that if brought to power, Jamaat-e-Islami would abolish the dual education system that separates rich and poor, and ensure women receive their rightful share in inheritance.

Inviting workers of the PTI to join his party's movement, he said Jamaat-e-Islami would build a nationwide base of five million members and establish 50,000 public committees to uproot "an unjust system".

The gathering was also addressed by former provincial minister and JI K-P North chief Inayatullah Khan, party vice emir Maulana Dr Ataur Rehman, former MNA Sahibzada Tariqullah, and JI Upper Dir emir Sahibzada Faseehullah.