Phone service suspension: ‘Government supposed to facilitate people, not cause inconvenience’

Jamaat-i-Islami’s chief slams govt during Eid sermon at Mansoora.

LAHORE:

Syed Munawar Hasan, the Jamaat-i-Islami amir, slammed the federal government for jamming mobile telephone services on Chand Raat and Eid day.

He was addressing the Eid congregation at Mansoora.

He said Rehman Malik had failed in maintaining law and order in the country. Terrorists had a free run in Karachi and Balochistan.

The JI leader said Islam is a religion of peace. He said terrorism had been “thrust upon” the Muslims by the West only to malign Islam and its believers. He described the US governments as terrorists who had killed millions of innocent and unarmed people in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the US had now made Pakistan its target. People were being killed in FATA in drones strike, he said, which had continued even during Ramazan and Eid holidays.

A gulf was being created between the people and the armed forces, he warned.

Hasan described the government as one made up of incompetent people, who he said were slaves to the US.

The public, he said, wanted a permanent ban on NATO supplies through Pakistan and an end to the drone attacks.  If the army and the government did not achieve that soon, said Hasan, the people would take to the streets. The government and the army will be responsible for whatever happens next, he said.

He called on the people to unite against the “corrupt government”. He also demanded that the government announce the schedule for the general elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2012.