Daily Times

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq has said that the president’s address to the joint session of the parliament was disappointing as the president simply raved about the government and did not say anything about the problems confronting the country and the nation.

Commenting on the president’s address at the beginning of the new parliamentary year, Siraj said that President Mamnoon neither talked about the menace of corruption nor gave any proposal on the issue.

The president’s address did not provide a roadmap for the protection of the country’s sovereignty or against the drone attacks, he said. “One wondered what prevented him [president] from speaking on the issue of drone attacks,” he maintained.

He said that the president did not suggest any solution to the economic and social problems of a common man nor did he touch the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The president also did not mention the failure of the government on the foreign front, he added.

The JI chief said that the president represented the federation and not the government, and his address should have been according to his status. However, he said that instead of commenting on the performance of the government during the last three years, the president presented a one sided picture by beginning his address with the praises of the government and winding it up on the same note.