JI to go to any extent to wipe out corruption: Siraj

LAHORE

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has warned that if the parliament and courts failed to hold the corrupt elite accountable, the public courts would be held on streets and thoroughfares. 

Addressing the central executive committee of JI at Mansoora on Thursday, he said accountability was not only a political requirement in the country in the prevailing situation, it was also a matter of public interest. Stating that the JI would go to any extent to wipe out corruption, Sirajul Haq said all eyes of the masses were on the Supreme Court. He expressed hopes that the court would not disappoint the nation. He, however, said public-awakening was imperative to end corruption.

Sirajul Haq said Panama Leaks issue would not be over as such and if the rulers thought they would escape accountability, they were mistaken. He said the JI was struggling for electoral reforms so that the true representatives of the masses could be elected to the assemblies.

He said if the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) continued its past policies, the polls would be a joke with the masses. He said that the general public which was stricken by the loadshedding, price spiral, unemployment, etc, considered elections as a game of the Moghul princes, due to which their interest in the polls was minimum. He said if the next elections were held without electoral reforms, the masses would not accept the results.

“Pakistan is a great divine blessing and whoever has betrayed this country, had to suffer”, he said and added that Allah Almighty would make this country a strong fortress of Islam. He said that the public-awakening was essential as the masses alone could carry out the accountability of the corrupt mafia.

He was of the view that in the coming days, the weather would be cold but the politics would be quite hot.

The JI chief termed the NAB decision accepting plea bargain of those plundering billions a joke with the poverty-stricken masses, and requested the Supreme Court to take notice of the matter and abolish the provision. Denouncing the government decision placing major regulatory bodies under respective ministries, Sirajul Haq said the government had opened new doors of corruption for the ministers during its remaining period. He said the government had already demolished several institutions. The Karachi Steel Mills is under Rs 74 billion debt besides the salaries of the staff amounting to Rs 50 billion, he said. As for the PIA, he said, instead of repairing the aircraft, there was an attempt to run the national airline by sacrificing black goat. He said it was ridiculous and had made the country a laughing stock.