JI chief Siraj assails Nawaz, Zardari

BATKHELA: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq said on Friday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lost legal and moral authority after the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case against him and should step down.

Speaking at a public meeting in Zafar Park in Batkhela in Malakand Agency here, the JI chief alleged that all knew that Nawaz Sharif had owned properties abroad.

He said further investigation was required in the Panama case against Nawaz Sharif. He added that two judges had said that there was no need for further investigation against the premier and had given their verdict against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. 

"The prime minister can get re-elected if the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) cleared him of charges against him," he added.  Scoffing at the statement of Co-Chairman of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and former president Asif Ali Zardari in which he threatened to tear the belly of Sharif brothers apart and recover embezzled money from them, Senator Sirajul Haq said that several cases of corruption were being heard against the former president in the courts.

"The statement of a 'champion of corruption' to recover corruption money from the corrupt is a joke of this year," he said in a reference to the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

He said that there were different rules for small and big thieves in the country. "Those involved in small corruption cases are languishing in jails while the big thieves are roaming freely. No one can dare lay hand on big fish. They make victory signs after getting bail from courts," he added.

He criticised the government for loadshedding was being carried out in the country and threatened that the JI would stage a sit-in outside the office of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) if the government failed to stop unannounced power cuts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The JI chief maintained that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced surplus and cheap electricity but in return the province was being subjected to excessive power outages and the consumers were charged Rs24 per unit, which he termed extremely unjust. Criticisng the bureaucracy, Sirajul said they diverted the development funds to Punjab province and ignored other provinces, particularly Malakand division. 

He criticised the federal government for its silence over the plight of Pakistanis labouring in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, adding Pakhtuns, particularly the people of Malakand division were labouring in Gulf countries and sent billions of rupees in remittances to the country but they were facing numerous problems and a large number of these were languishing in jails but the government was unmoved. He vowed to make an end to the discriminatory system, hold accountable the corrupt and give facilities to poor if his party was voted to power.