KARACHI: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief, Senator Sirajul Haq, on Sunday announced to observe a solidarity day for Karachi on October 14 across the country and carry out a three-day public referendum for the problems of Karachi.
He was speaking to a rally under the banner of the 'Karachi Rights Movement’ organised by the JI Karachi Chapter on Shahrah-e-Quaideen to demand an empowered city government for the metropolis and give the people of Karachi their due political and economic rights.
Thousands of participants, holding banners and placards, took part in a rally. “Give back our city to us”, “build Karachi’s roads”, “We are 30 million”, “No to quota system”,“we want empowered local government system”, “Give buses to Karachi”, “Do a forensic audit of K-Electric” were the major demands written on the placards the rally participants were holding.
Siraj said the religious party was with Karachi and would not leave its 30 million people. Karachi is mini Pakistan where people from all over the country are living, he said. "No rulers since President Ayub Khan’s regime till date have ever bothered for Karachi. The city has now become ruined at the hands of the past and present corrupt rulers,” the JI chief said.
Criticizing the federal and provincial governments for doing nothing for the betterment of Karachi and its residents, Haq said that the destruction of Karachi was Pakistan’s devastation. “Infrastructure of the city is in shambles, overflowing gutters and dilapidated road network has made the life of people miserable. There is no clean water for drinking purposes in the city,” he said. He demanded immediate transparent local bodies elections in the city and called for proper legislation to strengthen the municipalities. He said that the next mayor of Karachi would be from Jamaat-e-Islami if free and fair local government elections were held in the city.
He also demanded the government to provide jobs to residents of Karachi on merit as Karachiites were being ignored completely in the appointment of jobs. Haq said that he would raise his voice for Karachi's rights in the Senate as the party in the past has been raising voice for Karachi on all fora, including parliament. The landlords in Sindh have usurped the rights of their people and farmers and even people cannot vote on their own due to the tyrant behavior of influential people, he said.
JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded the government to abolish the quota system, provide fair chances of education and employment to youths of the city. He said the Pakistan People's Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement have looted Karachi like a hot cake and remained eager to save their vested interests at the cost of citizens and Karachi's rights.
"We have open options to seize the Chief Minister's House and Governor's House if rulers do not change their mindset towards the people and city,” he said. Rehman also announced that the JI would conduct a referendum from October 15 to 17 in Karachi for its rights. “It is our demand to give rights to Karachi and do not treat us as beggars," he said. JI’s other leaders Dr. Osama Razi, Abdul Razzaq Khan, MPA Abdul Rasheed Khan, JI parliamentary leaders in KMC, Korangi Association of Trade & Industry (KATI) president Zahid Saeed, known industrialist and columnist Khalil Nanitalwala, Federal B Area Association of Trade & Industry president M Abdullah Abid and others also spoke to the gathering.