JI accuses rulers of misleading masses on energy crisis

Liaquat Baloch says Panama case verdict to determine future of country

LAHORE: Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Liaqat Baloch has alleged that the government is trying to mislead the nation by giving fictitious figures of power crisis.

He said that according to a careful estimate, the national economy had incurred losses of more than 10 billion dollars because of power shortage.

Speaking at a high-level party meeting at Mansoora on Wednesday, he said energy experts had been repeatedly drawing the government’s attention to the impending energy crisis but the 'kitchen cabinet' and the decision makers in the government quarters ignored their warnings and even tried to silence them.

Liaqat Baloch wondered on whom the prime minister was annoyed for the worst loadshedding as shown by the media since he himself was to be blamed for the situation. He questioned on what basis, the announcements of ending loadshedding were made at the public meetings, and who was providing the false figures.

Baloch said hundreds of thousands of industrial workers had been rendered jobless because of the persisting energy crisis and a vast majority of them were the sole bread winner of their families, and many of them committed suicides or turned towards crimes. He said unemployment had resulted in an increase in crime, intolerance besides immoral activities and even facilitated terrorism.

Later, addressing a meeting in connection with the possible verdict of the Panama Leaks case, Baloch said the court judgment would determine the future of the country.  JI deputy chiefs Asadullah Bhutto, Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, Deputy Secretary General Azhar Iqbal Hasan, Information Secretary Amirul Azeem and Youth President Zubair Gondal were present at the meeting.

Liaqat Baloch said on the one hand, talented young men with degrees in their hands were searching for jobs without success while on the other hand, the kith and kin of the ruling group were holding high government positions without any merit. He said the slaves of the British in the bureaucracy were obstructing the conduct of Superior Services examination in Urdu.