PTI govt ‘new edition’ to past rulers: Siraj

LAHORE : Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said the PTI government was a “new edition” to the past governments and its five months output was nothing except claims and promises.

There is a change only in the faces in the previous polls as the policies and entire system remained unchanged, he said while addressing a meeting of JI central Shoora at Mansoorah on Saturday. He lamented that the past rulers had betrayed the Pakistan ideology to the extent that it destroyed nationhood and resulted in the fall of Dhaka. He said the responsibility of the colossal debt on the country was with the politicians who had been returning to the assemblies on the ticket of one party or the other. He said that those in power at present were not new. He said that partial accountability would not reform society and a ruthless accountability was the need of the hour. He said that all those who had plundered the public money, devoured huge bank loans and transferred their wealth abroad must be brought to the dock and made to account for their wealth. He said it was the demand of the whole nation and not the JI alone.

Sirajul Haq said not even a penny of the looted wealth had been recovered so far. He said that the nation would not believe the claims of the rulers unless the plundered wealth stashed abroad was retrieved and the country did not need to ask for financial help from any one. He said the country could not progress without true democracy. He said whenever there were elections, fingers were pointed at different quarters as the majority of the people remained indifferent about them. He said the election petitions were not decided even in five year due to which the public had lost confidence in the election system.

Veteran JI leader passes away: Chaudhry Rehmat Elahi, Jamaat-e-Islami’s veteran leader who was among the founding leaders the party, breathed his last after a protracted illness on Saturday. He was 94.

Always considered as the right hand man of JI founder Syed Maudoodi, Ch Rehmat Elahi, hailed from Pathankot, India. He worked as a federal minister and also discharged his duties as JI naib ameer and JI secretary general, for different terms. He had joined the JI after giving up his service in the armed forces and dedicated all his life for the cause of Islamic renaissance.

JI Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq, former JI ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan, JI Naib Aameer Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, Prof Muhammad Ibrahim, senior JI leader Ch Muhammad Aslam Saleemi, Maulana Abdul Malik, JI central Punjab Ameer Amirul Azeem, JI information secretary Qaisar Sharif and M Anwar Niazi have expressed grief over his death. They have prayed for the departed soul. They noted that Ch Rehmat had devoted his entire life for establishing the supremacy of Deen and also offered huge sacrifices for this cause. Namaz-e-Janaza was offered at the Mansoora ground.