Accountability to strengthen democracy, says Siraj

LAHORE

Jamaat-i-Islami 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 Panama Leaks and 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 accept any corrupt person at their top nor issue them party tickets. He said JI would not seek or extend support to any plunderer or corrupt person. He clarified that 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.

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 enquiry Commission. He said the corrupt elite had taken national institutions as 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 nation had rejected such a commission. He said the prime minister in his addresses to the nation had not offered 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 advance of summer, he said. He said 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. 

moot: The steering committee of all major religious parties in the country vowed efforts to foil conspiracies against the Islamic identity of Pakistan. 

Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Tuesday, The committee chairman, Liaqat Baloch, and other members, said the existence of religious parties was a great blessing for the country, especially because some materialistic and unwise elements wanted to build Pakistan a liberal and secular state. On the other hand, Baloch said, the religious forces were striving for the enforcement of Nizam-e-Mustafa (PBUH) as the country had been achieved in the name of Islam. Liaqat Baloch said religious parties would hold a Nizam-e-Mustafa (PBUH) Conference at Rawalpindi on May 12, which would be followed by similar moot in Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Gilgit and in South Punjab. He said seminars and rallies would also be held in different cities and towns against the Women Protection Law passed by Punjab Assembly. He said the government would have to withdraw the bill to display its loyalty towards the constitution of Pakistan.

Liaqat Baloch said religious parties were not against women rights but they were against the particular law that was copied from the western societies having secular values and was alien to Pakistani society where people love the Islamic values more than their lives. He asked what prevented the government from providing quality education to women, basic facilities of health, justice and jobs in order to improve their lot.