Quality education being pushed away from reach of middle and lower classes: JI chief

KARACHI/HYDERABAD: A few influential persons have taken Pakistan into their clutches, as a result of which poor Pakistani people are deprived of their due rights.

Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said this on Sunday while addressing thousands of youths who had appearing in an aptitude test for the JI’s Bano Qabil programme at the Nishtar Park.

He said the corrupt system of governance in the country had enabled a minority hyper elite class to rule over it. He held the corrupt system responsible for all the miseries of the nation and urged the youth to support the JI in its struggle against the corrupt system.

According to a statement issued by the JI, Rehman alleged that 90 per cent of the members of legislative assemblies were trillionaires, whereas 98 per cent of people were unable to find a way to prosperity.

He added that even education had been pushed away from the reach of lower and middle economic classes. Nations did not progress if the education sector was made a business and unfortunately this was the case in Pakistan, he lamented.

He added that the education budget for Sindh was more than Rs481 billion but not even a single Pakistan Peoples Party leader or anyone belonging to the secretariat was willing to send their children to any public school for education.

The JI chief said the people had been kept deprived of basic necessities, including water and electricity. He asserted that the feudal lords in the assemblies would not be allowed to decide the fate of masses.

Talking about the contribution of the JI to the education sector, he said the Bano Qabil programme had been expanded across the country from Karachi. He added that in the next two years, free information technology courses would be offered to one million young people.

He announced that the JI would also be offering degree courses as well in the days to come.

Karachi JI Emir Monem Zafar, Alkhidmat CEO Naveed Ali Baig and others also addressed the participants of the ceremony.

A day earlier on Saturday, Rehman addressed a press conference in Hyderabad on the Parachinar massacre and other issues, and stated that both the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal governments had failed to maintain peace in the tribal areas.

He said the killing of a large number of people travelling in caravans in Parachinar was not a communal issue. He demanded that the government identify other forces present there.

The JI chief asked from where weapons had come to the dacoits in Katcha areas of Sindh. He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari showed off by going around temples but failed to protect the Hindu community.

He said that although Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was not part of the federal cabinet, it was holding several key constitutional positions in the centre because it was part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, and so it could not fool the people.

He alleged that President Asif Ali Zardari approved six canals on the Indus River in July 2024, but now the PPP’s Sindh government was protesting against the federal government.

Rehman maintained that all the parties in the PDM had together made the water plan.

He remarked that being part the PDM, the PPP was part of the federal government government. It passed laws and constitutional amendment together with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and also gave extension together.

He said Zardari had signed the Cholistan scheme, and asked why the PPP was now fooling the people when they had raised hue and cry about the 1991 Water Accord. He warned that if the water share of Sindh was reduced, more problems would arise.

The JI leader said that unfortunately the establishment in the country prepared leaders and brought them into governments, after which they failed.

He said the JI would not beg the establishment to bring it into power.

Terming the PPP a decadent party, Rehman said if the establishment stopped supporting it today, the PPP would come down with a bang.

He lamented that Hyderabad was a city with great historical heritage but it had been damaged by the oppressors.

In response to a question, the JI chief said every party had the right to protest, and if the PTI had said it would shut down the entire country, the government actually shut down everything by installing containers.

He said 30 per cent of the people were elected unopposed in the local bodies elections in Sindh and the rest of the seats were captured, and similary the general elections were earlier rigged through the Form 47.