Accountability to strengthen democracy: Siraj

Urges political parties to unite against corruption

LAHORE: JI Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has warned that any conspiracy to derail the process of accountability will not be allowed to succeed. Accountability will not be confined to the rulers alone but would be extended to all those whose names have appeared in the Panama Leaks and who have plundered public money, he said while talking to the media at Mansoora after the meeting of JI Central Shoora on Tuesday.

He urged the political parties not to accept any corrupt person at their top nor issue them party tickets. He said the JI would not seek or extend support to any plunderer or corrupt person. He clarified that the JI’s campaign was against corruption and not democracy, and added that accountability would only strengthen democracy. “Democracy is not like a mirror that would break with the accountability of the rulers,” he remarked.

The JI chief said political parties should be unanimous against corruption and warned that whoever stood apart would be helping the rulers in escaping accountability. He said a meeting of opposition parties would be held in Islamabad on May 2 to decide the ToRs for the Inquiry Commission. He said the corrupt elite had made national institutions hostages like the East India Company. He said efforts of the rulers to have an enquiry commission of their choice or escape accountability had failed, since the nation had rejected such a commission. He said the prime minister in his addresses to the nation had not offered a solution to the problems facing the country.

Sirajul Haq said besides financial corruption, the country was having political, electoral and judicial corruption that had driven the country towards poverty, illiteracy and lawlessness. He urged the masses to break the idol of corruption through their vote. He termed the present government a continuation of the past dispensations as far as the slavery of IMF and World Bank was concerned. He said the rulers had failed to bring any change in the country during the last three years. The genie of loadshedding was out again with the beginning of summer, he said. He said the Panama Leaks had given the rulers a golden opportunity to write their name in history by holding ruthless accountability.

He said there were only two parties in the country, the oppressor and the oppressed. The tyranny of the corrupt elite had crossed all limits and it was time that the oppressed masses got united against the oppressors. JI parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Sahibzada Taraqullah and JI Information Secretary Ameerul Azim were present.