Rulers, Opp indifferent to people’s problems, says Siraj

LAHORE : Jamaat Islami (JI) ameer Sirajul Haq lamented that country’s ship is stumbling in the turbulent sea of economic misery, immorality and corruption, but the ruling and opposition parties and state institutions are completely indifferent and callously busy in power mongering for their own interests at the cost of people.

Addressing a seminar on the challenges facing the country at Mansoorah, he said the inequitable distribution of resources and bad governance are the root of all the problems.

PhD degree holders in various fields briefed the participants on the issues of national economy, agriculture, energy and other sectors and their solutions. Appreciating the hard work of the professionals, Sirajul Haq assured them that the suggestions will be made a part of JI manifesto and conveyed to the workers and nation in a simple and understandable manner for their guidance.

Sirajul Haq said if common man is hungry and deprived of basic needs, it is a direct result of the oppressive capitalist system which must be replaced with Islamic system based on justice and welfare, which abolish the interest, consequently removing inflation, unemployment and poverty. He said he had just returned from a visit to the flooded areas of Sindh, seeing millions of women and children languishing in roadside tents facing, hunger, diseases and fear for future. Even otherwise, he said, millions of poor are forced to live miserable lives without shelter or food, emphasising that the nation will have to struggle against the outdated system to realize its basic rights. Due to usurious economy, half of the budget goes to international banks in the form of repayment of loans.

Besides the economy, he said, the country is facing ethical and management challenges as all institutions have weakened against few individuals. The concept of the supremacy of the constitution and law has been undermined and the institutions of education and health are in serious decline. The poor finds no relief in the police stations, while the powerful avails all facilities. Nearly half of the population is deprived of two meals a day, while a small percentage of elites are living on the pile of wealth with children and properties living abroad and themselves like emperors here. The bureaucracy considers taking bribe as their right, and brutality against women is on the rise which is alarmingly found in flood-affected homeless women. He said JI has been repeatedly demanding an effective, transparent system of distribution of relief goods but the rulers are paying no heed.