Army, govt must explain decisions: Munawar Hasan

JI chief says war on terrorism to blame for economic woes, ‘US slavery’.

LAHORE:

The armed forces of Pakistan and the country’s rulers will one day have to explain to the nation why they took part in the war on terror, said Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan on Wednesday.

“Who is answerable for the deaths of thousands of youths ... killed by their own armed forces to please an enemy which has sown the seeds of hatred for the armed forces?” Munawar said in conversation with various delegations at the JI headquarters in Mansoora.

Hasan said that Pakistan had a painful history of military operations against its own countrymen. “We lost our eastern wing due to such an operation,” he said.

The JI chief said that the air force chief had admitted that there could be no military solution to the trouble in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The air chief marshal had revealed that the Pakistan Air Force had dropped around 10,000 bombs in the Tribal Areas, but not how many innocent men, women and children were killed in these attacks, he said.

The JI chief said that Pakistan had not gained anything from the war “except Washington’s demand to do more”. American soldiers had trampled on the country’s sovereignty and integrity, the country’s borders had become insecure and the national economy had been placed at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies were no longer independent and “the rulers became complete US slaves,” he said.

Hasan said that corruption had destroyed important institutions. Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats had amassed billions through commissions and kickbacks and deposited them in foreign banks. This was the poor man’s money and its return could solve the issue of foreign debt and improve the common man’s plight, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2011.