JI’s public referendum to help resolve Karachi’s issues, says Hafiz Naeemur Rehman

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman on Friday said the party’s three-day public referendum, to be carried from October 16 to 18, for the problems of Karachi would be a turning point to resolve the city’s issues.

Addressing a party meeting at the Idara Noor-e-Haq, he said the rulers did not prepare any plan for the development of Karachi. He said the JI’s doors were open for like-minded parties on the party’s Karachi agenda and “we will go shoulder to shoulder with them to resolve Karachi’s problems”.

In this connection, he said, academia, intellectuals, traders, workers, representatives of minorities, lawyers and civil society members would be contacted and “a joint Karachi Referendum Commission comprising representatives will be set up”.

Rehman said Karachi’s issues were not part of the national political agenda but the JI was the only party that took up Karachi’s issues for its resolution.

On the appeal of Senator Siraj-ul-Haq, he said the party would observe a solidarity day with Karachi on October 14 in the country. “We will not leave Karachi unaided as the city is like our heart and soul.”

In the past, he said the JI served Karachi during Abdus Sattar Afghani and Naimatullah Khan’ tenures and “we are still determined to solve Karachi’s problems”. JI’s Dr Osama Razi said almost roads and streets in the city were running with overflowing gutters and citizens were deprived of potable water, living without civic facilities. Addressing the workers, columnist Shahnawaz Farooqi termed the JI a visionary party. “The JI understands the difficulties of people,” he concluded.