Present system benefits the ruling elite: Siraj

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq has warned that the country could not progress without introducing wide-ranging reforms in all major sectors. As the present system benefits the ruling elite, they would never be interested in changing it, he said while addressing a meeting of different delegations at Mansoora on Thursday.

“People should make a peaceful democratic struggle to send the status quo forces home,” he said, adding the PTI continued the policies of the past government and only told lies that it was an agent of “change.” He criticised the government and it had one-sided electoral reforms agenda, terming it a plan of pre-poll rigging. The government’s so-called reforms agenda, he said, overshadowed the critical issues which were hurdles in fairness of electoral process. There was a need to address the issue of unbridled use of money in elections and influence of governments and state officials in the electoral process, he said. The Election Commission should be powerful and independent, but, he said, he was afraid the status quo forces would never pay attention to the basic problems as the current system suited them.

Sirajul Haq said Prime Minister Imran Khan made tall claims to end corruption but the evil was still there rather the international agencies noted the rise in corruption in PTI government’s three years. Inflation and unemployment are major problems which the government failed to address despite making promises, he said, adding a common Pakistani could not afford purchasing things of basic needs.