JI announces march against inflation, PPP’s ‘bad governance’ after Eid

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will take out a ‘million march’ after Eidul Fitr in Karachi against the prevailing sky rocketing inflation, and bad governance on part of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh government.

Karachi JI Emir Monem Zafar made this announcement on Wednesday while addressing a press conference at the Idara Noor-e-Haq. He said the megalopolis had become a hub of problems and crises, but all the ruling parties were ignoring its burning issues.

He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan had just been passing the buck and playing blame game and none of them showed any seriousness for Karachi or its people.

He said the ruling PPP, PML-N and MQM-P always played blame game but never delivered. Against this backdrop, the JI had decided to level up the Karachi Rights Movement, he added. Zafar said the mobilisation campaign as well as the post-Eid million march would be a wake-up call for the rulers. The Karachiites would have to get united against the apartheid imposed by the feudal mindset of the PPP, he asserted.

He lamented that society had already been engulfed by unbearable inflation when another wave of inflation in the holy month of Ramazan worsened the situation. He remarked that it was a height of irony that the chief minister had announced that he would not tolerate artificial inflation but his subordinates were acting otherwise. He also questioned the role of administration, price control committees, assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners in the prevailing situation.

With the commencement of Ramazan, the city was pushed to an acute gas crisis, the JI leader said, adding that there was no gas during Sehri and Iftar in several areas of Karachi. He added that similarly the public had no respite from the power load shedding during the holy month.

Regarding the lack of public transport, he said 60 per cent of the people of Karachi had to use motorcycles for travelling as the government had not taken any step for improving the mass transit system of Karachi.

Karachi had been subjected to criminal negligence by the ruling elite, the JI leader said. He also highlighted that a large number of the people of Karachi were killed by heavy traffic but no solid action was taken against those responsible for the deaths. He said that in the given situation, the people of Karachi would have no other option but to exercise their democratic right to protest against injustice.