Shabab-e-Milli youth convention: JI chief urges people to vote for change

Says over a thousand JI leaders elected to assemblies in last 65 years, none faced corruption charges.

KARACHI:

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hasan Sunday urged the youth to create awareness among the people to come out on election day and vote for change.

“It is my appeal to the people to vote for JI and other principled parties in order to secure the future of Pakistan, and help change the destiny of the country and its people,” he said addressing thousands of youngsters on MA Jinnah Road at the “Umeed-e-Pakistan Youth Convention” organised by Shabab-e-Milli Pakistan.

Shabab, the JI’s youth wing, had remained passive since its inception in 1994, but it was reorganised in the last couple of years.

In preparation of the convention, the Shabab had displayed banners and exhibited floats processions across the city for the last many days, explained its Karachi president Saifuddin. Shabab activists went door-to-door to invite youth for participation in the convention, he said.

Hasan said that over a thousand JI leaders were elected for national and provincial assemblies during last 65 years and not even a single case of corruption was registered against them.

The JI chief said that the plunderers in the past governments after looting the national exchequer were attempting to jump ships before the elections. “It was lamentable that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan presented charge sheets to corrupt political parties, while former representatives of such parties secured prominent positions in the PTI,” he said.

Shabab-e-Milli Pakistan president Atiqur Rehman said “We have peaceful people in our party, having democratic forbearance and we want peace in Karachi as well as other parts of the country.”

It is the responsibility of the people to find an alternative leadership as now they know that the alliance of PPP, MQM and ANP during the last government has even snatched their basic needs of life, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2013.