PanamaLeaks decision to make Pakistan corruption-free: Siraj

Condemns ban on student unions; says JI drive

against corruption is for rights of general public

LAHORE: Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Senator Sirajul Haq has said that as a result of the decision in the PanamaLeaks case Pakistan will emerge as a corruption-free country in the world.

He was addressing the participants of the JI central workshop at Mansoora here. Siraj said that Pakistan’s image abroad had been tarnished due to corruption. He said in principle it was the government responsibility to check fraud and corruption but unfortunately the country’s rulers were at the top in corruption. As such they could not be expected to control the menace. He said that if a few of the big guns were punished for corruption all others would automatically renounce the evil. The JI chief also condemned the ban on the students unions continuing since 1984 and said this had done irreparable harm to the growth of political culture in the country. He said that if the employees in the government and semi-government institutions had the right to form unions and associations there was no reason to deny the same to the students at college and university levels. He called for the revival of the students unions to strengthen democracy in the country.

Sirajul Haq said the government officials were no longer public servants as the general public could not get any work done without offering bribe to the government functionaries. He said the JI drive against corruption was not against any individual or any party it was a fight for the rights of the general public. 

The JI chief said that only an honest and clean leadership could control the menace. However’ he said, this required overhauling the electoral system in which the common man could return to the assemblies without spending billions on the election campaign. He said that the international establishment and the foreign NGOs were at the back of the corrupt mafias. He said that only those guilty of loot and plunder were afraid of accountability.