JI pulls out scores for a sit-in

Jamaat-e-Islami activists voice support for blasphemy law, protest for release of Dr Aafia.

ISLAMABAD:

Just a few yards from the Parliament House and the Presidency, hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists and supporters on Sunday staged a sit-in at the Parade Avenue in a bid to stop the government from amending the blasphemy law. Instead, they said, the government should put a stop to the high inflation in the country and corruption in the government.

JI Chief Syed Munawar Hassan, while addressing a crowd of hundreds of people from the twin cities and adjoining areas, vowed to carry on with protest sit-ins and rallies if the government fails to improve its performance.

“What good can you expect from a government that has failed to expose the killers of its own leader? Such a government is not competent enough to run the state affairs,” Hassan asserted during his address.

The JI leader also came hard on the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer for advocating amendments to the blasphemy law, under which a person convicted of blasphemy can be sentenced to death.

Workers of Jamaat-e-Islami arrived at the venue in cars and motorbikes, holding party flags and banners. They were chanting slogans against the United States and the present government.

The JI chief demanded the rulers to return the public money saved in the foreign accounts and take immediate steps to restore peace to Karachi and Balochistan.  “Otherwise, the people who gave them the mandate to rule will throw them out of the government.”

He added that the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government had also failed to deliver on the foreign-policy front. The increasing number of drone attacks undermined the country’s sovereignty and the government was incapable of stopping the attacks, he said.

Hassan also warned against a military operation in North Waziristan, which, he said, will create more terrorists. The government needed to bring the warring factions of the militants on the table as dialogue with the militants was the only option for stability and peace in the country, Hassain said.

The JI announced a joint declaration demanding the government to improve law and order situation in the country, recover missing persons, eliminate inflation, stop terrorist attacks on worship places, improve governance and not make amendments to the blasphemy law.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2010.