Jamaat-e-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq launched the JI Karachi chapter’s website for registering public complaints on Monday, and said that every Pakistani is living under stress, while both the government and the opposition have put aside the people’s interests.
“The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] and the opposition parties have been fighting mainly to appease the International Monetary Fund and other international monetary bodies,” claimed Haq as he addressed a ceremony at the Idara Noor-e-Haq (the JI’s city office) to launch the website (JIPublicAid.com).
He said that during its 900 days in office, the PTI-led federal government has not even been able to clear Karachi’s roads, streets and storm water drains of filth, so how can one expect it to resolve the issues of Pakistan’s 220 million people.
“The duty of a government is not only to collect revenue but it is also the utter responsibility of the rulers to provide basic constitutional rights of education, health and security to the people.”
The JI chief said that the country is being run by a particular clan and class from one generation to the next, but now it is time for the masses to stand for their rights. He said that instead of government offices solving the problems of the masses, they have become centres of looting money from the people, while every state institution has been ruined.
“The working class in the country has the right to ask the government to resolve their problems and provide them relief, but there are only two classes: one is cruel and the other is oppressed, and the masses belong to the latter.” JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that the city’s residents have great expectations from his party, which will work for the people's well-being and help resolve their issues.
He said that no basic facility from any government quarter is available to the people, as they lack the facility of public transport, have been dealing with water and sewerage issues, and have the least of public health and education opportunities.
He also said that the JI will continue to hold protest demonstrations for the city’s rights, and asked the residents to team up with the party for the resolution of their long-standing issues. JI Karachi Public Aid President Saifuddin Advocate said that the city has become a clutter of problems due to government functionaries and institutions, who have become a mafia. He said his party will make all-out efforts to resolve the people’s issues, for which they have launched the website.
PSM issue
A day earlier, Senator Haq asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to meet the retrenched employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in person who have been holding a sit-in in front of the Chairman House in Steel Town for the past fortnight.
Addressing the sacked employees and their families during his visit to the sit-in, Haq called for the restoration of more than 4,000 workers and withdrawal of police cases instituted against leaders of the Employees Action Committee.
He also asked the federal government to take back the recently proposed privatisation decision of nine state-owned enterprises. Privatisation and contract system in these institutions was not the right strategy to resolve the economic crisis, he said.