Daily Times

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI), one of the main opposition parties in the country, has adopted a different strategy to that of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan against corruption.

JI Ameer Sirajul Haq on Sunday announced that his party would hold a protest rally in Faisalabad on September 30, the same day when its parliamentary ally-PTI- would be holding its public meeting in Lahore.

Addressing a press conference flanked with other party leaders, including Liaqat Baloch, Amirul Azeem and Farid Paracha at the party headquarters, Mansoora, after its Shura meeting, he declared that JI would continue its drive against corruption within the courts and outside.

Sirajul Haq said the Shura had reviewed the rulers’ indifference on the issues of Panama leaks and resolved that if the government did not constitute an independent judicial commission for enquiry into the matter and if the prime minister did not present himself for accountability, the only option for the opposition would be to hold public protests.

He said the JI Shura had noted that a period of five months had passed since the Panama leaks but the rulers had not set up a judicial commission for probe into the matter, which proves that there something wrong in the government circles and the rulers were not prepared for a transparent enquiry. He, however, said the JI was determined to continue its drive against corruption till all the plunderers were put behind the bars and every penny of the plundered money was recovered.

Sijajul Haq asked what steps the government had taken for the recovery of the $275 billion lying in the Swiss banks. He said it was the demand of the nation to cleanse politics of corruption and to send the plunderers to jail.

He told a questioner that the opposition parties would present a common line of action against corruption in the first week of October, adding that the JI wanted accountability of all previous governments besides the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

He said JI was against violence or show of force. However, he added, if the government had solved these issues in the assemblies, masses would not have been forced to come on roads.

He has said that the Pakistani nation and the armed forces were on the same page against India and in case of any aggression, would give a befitting response to the enemy, which would end up in the emergence of several new Pakistans within India.

Sirajul Haq said that the JI Sura had reviewed the situation in held Kashmir following the martyrdom of Burhans Muzaffar Wani, adding that the Pakistani nation paid rich tributes to the Kashmiris for their sacrifices and stood with them in their struggle for liberation. “The Shura resolved to defend the homeland till their last breath and the last drop of blood in their veins,” he asserted.

The JI chief said that the prime minister had presented the Kashmir issue at the UN in accordance with the sentiments of the nation. However, he added, there was need for practical steps in the same direction.

He noted that US President Obama had not mentioned the Kashmir issue in his address to the UN General Assembly, which reflected the weakness of Pakistani diplomacy. He said it seemed the government had not made preparations on this score at international and diplomatic fronts.

The JI chief said the Kashmiris movement was continuing only because of the efforts of the Kashmiri youth, who under the leadership of Burhan Wani, had been determined to achieve liberation.

Sirajul Haq said he had been expecting that the prime minister in his UN address would take up the issue of Modi’s meddling in Balochistan and Baltistan and the executions of JI leaders in Bangladesh in violation of the 1974 agreement between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. However, this was not done.

Similarly, he said, the prime minister had not raised the issue of Pakistan’s respected daughter Dr Aafia Siddiqui or even RAW agent Kalboshan who had been arrested by the security agencies.