Country can repay loans if corruption cut by 40pc: Siraj

LAHORE

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has said if a judicial commission is unable to bring the corrupt to justice, there will be accountability by the masses.

Talking to a delegation of Punjab JI leaders headed by Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar at Mansoora on Wednesday, he said the corrupt elite should fear the day when the poor living in huts would lay siege to the palaces of the rich. He said a few families had taken the country hostage.

The JI chief said if corruption was only reduced by 40 percent, all the loans of the country could be repaid while 80 percent fall in corruption would enable the country to double its development budget. He said national and international media had exposed several faces. He said the offshore companies were only a part of the corrupt system and added that more facts would be exposed soon. He said the judicial commission should have vast powers to take action against the corrupt.

He said the children of the rulers were studying in foreign countries and also doing business abroad. These people visit Pakistan only to rule here, he remarked. He said speeches of the Prime Minister and ministers were only adding to the confusion. He said the Panama Leaks issue could not be resolved by statements and rebuttals from both sides.

Meanwhile, JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch, in a statement, welcomed the Opposition's decision to end boycott and play its full role in the parliament.

He said joint terms of reference were essential for legislation for a judicial commission to probe into Panama Leaks and weed out corruption. He said the government case was weak and if PTI chief Imran Khan had addressed the House immediately after the Prime Minister, it would have been much better.

Baloch said that the bill moved in the US Senate for compensation for the victims of the 9/11 was a cunning move from Washington and said the US was persistently taking measures against Saudi Arabia. He said the entire unrest and trouble in the Muslim world was the outcome of the US policies.

Baloch said it was high time the Muslim world resolved their mutual problems internally with the spirit of unity of the Ummah. He said if Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran were on the same page and had common concerns, the Muslim world could easily overcome its problems.