LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq on Thursday said the JI Central Shoora had framed ToRs for an inquiry into the corruption of the ruling elite and recovering the plundered wealth. These ToRs would be passed on to the government which would have to accept them.
Talking to the media at Mansoora, he said the plunderers would have to return every penny of public money as the corruption of everybody was clear like daylight and the issue could not be hushed up like in the past.
He said the prime minister, in his addresses to the nation, further complicated the matter and now the government was spending millions of rupees on advertisements in a futile bid to prove the prime minister’s innocence.
He said the rulers would have to be accountable for the wastage of public money on the advertisements. He said the rulers attitude indicated that they considered public money “mother’s milk”.
Siraj said the name of a judge also appeared in the Panama Leaks. He said the nation expected that the conscience of the judge would wake up and he would announce his resignation. However, his conscience did not awaken. He said millions of rupees had been misappropriated in the purchase of white lions and leopards for the zoo. He asked the rulers whether the white lions and leopards were more essential than arranging education and health facilities for poor children. He said it was due to the wrong priorities of the rulers that three patients had to lie on a single bed in government hospitals.
Siraj said he would spend the May Day with kiln workers and added that thousands of men, women and children had to toil hard to earn their living while the rulers lived in palaces after plundering public money.
Replying to a question regarding the Khyber Bank controversy, he said the bank MD had himself admitted the innocence of the JI minister, and the MD later offered an apology. He said the report of an inquiry committee set up by the KP chief minister was also out and Finance Minister Muzaffar Syed had been cleared of all allegations. He said even the JI’s worst opponents had not blamed JI leaders for corruption.
Meanwhile, the JI Central Shoora proposed a phased inquiry into the Panama Leaks, beginning with the corruption of the prime minister and his family within two months, to be followed by a probe into the malpractices of other politicians, judges and military officers.
The Shoora, at its meeting chaired by Sirajul Haq, stressed that there should be no exception on this score and the inquiry commission should avail forensic audit of documents besides experts’ support.
A resolution adopted by the Shoora said the government decision that the inquiry commission should comprise Supreme Court judges was in fact bowing to the demand of the JI and other opposition parties, but the ToRs framed by the government were based on ill-intentions. It demanded that the ToRs be framed in consultation with all parliamentary parties.
The resolution noted that the Panama Leaks were a confirmation of the JI stance that the country’s rulers had plundered trillions of rupees and transferred the money abroad. It said the details of offshore companies of about 200 Pakistanis including the prime minister and his family, politicians, generals, judges and journalists had exposed the mega corruption that had been going on in the country. This confirmed that there was no dearth of resources in the country and the actual problem was the loot by the rulers besides unjust distribution of resources.
It said that the ruling party’s election promises for bringing about a resolution had not been fulfilled while the poverty in the country had increased. The rulers were bent upon the privatization of the PIA and other state institutions in line with the IMF and World Bank agenda.
The JI central body said the arrest of Indian spies including a serving Indian military officer confirmed that India had a network in the country and was involved in terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan. However, the prime minister’s pro-India attitude had not been dampened. Islamabad’s apologetic and weak attitude towards New Delhi despite their aggressive stance and repeated cross-border violations was a grave threat to the country’s solidarity and existence. Similarly, the US’s unjustified and unilateral pressure on Pakistan regarding nuclear weapons was also condemnable.
The Shoora resolved to continue JI’s Corruption-free Pakistan Campaign to wipe out corruption in the fields of finance, politics, judiciary, elections, besides ideological corruption. It announced that all religious parties would be united to preserve the ideological character of the country, its moral values, the Muslim family system and the Islamic way of life.
The Shoora called upon the government to hold talks with Baloch leaders outside the country to restore peace in the province. It said the incompetence of the Punjab Police in combating the Chhotu Gang had proved that the government had failed to maintain law and order and protect the life and property of the masses. It noted that most of the crimes were committed with the backing of influential persons.
It said there was unrest among the people of Karachi as the investigation into the Baldia Town factory tragedy had not reached its logical end, and they had the fear that they were once again being driven into the hands of extortionists, target killers, land grabbers, etc.
