QUETTA: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has hailed reciprocal curbs imposed on US diplomats, saying Pakistan as a sovereign state desires relations with Washington on an equal footing. He was addressing a press conference at the provincial office of the JI on Saturday. Siraj Haq said the JI wanted Pakistan’s ties with all the countries of the world on an equal footing. He said that the US was a country on which Pakistan could never trust. The US, he said, had always deceived Pakistan. The JI leader said there were several weaknesses in the country’s foreign policy. In the beginning of the PML-N’s tenure, there was no foreign minister. Later, Khwaja Asif was appointed the foreign minister but he had been disqualified by the Supreme Court. The JI chief also condemned target killings in Quetta. He said that billions of rupees were spent on security but peace could not be restored in the provincial capital. Sirajul Haq said the primary objective of the MMA was to snatch country’s politics from feudal lords and capitalists and transfer it to the poor. He said the MMA pubic meeting at the Minar-e-Pakistan today (Sunday) would be a historic gathering, where the future line of action of the religious alliance would be announced. He was confident that the MMA would inflict a clear defeat on the opposite parties in the elections. In a clear reference to the PML-N and the PPP, he said the successive government gave people nothing in the last two decades. He said that none of the MMA leaders was wanted by NAB nor was any of them accused of corruption. JI provincial chief Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi, Wahdatul Muslimeen leader Allama Juma Asadi, JUP’s Maulana Abdul Quddus Sasooli and Majlis-e-Tahafuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat leader Maulan Anwarul Haq Haqqani were also present. Published in Daily Times, May 13th 2018.