PM should resign to ensure fair probe: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat e Islami ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said an independent and transparent investigation by the joint investigation team (JIT) necessitated the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from his office.

If the prime minister did not step down, he could influence the institutions during investigations, he said while talking to media after addressing a workshop of JI Youth from KP at Mansoorah on Saturday.

Sirajul Haq said Allah had provided an opportunity to Nawaz Sharif to record his name in history but “the tragedy with our rulers is that they would never quit unless the masses take to the streets against them”. He demanded that JIT proceedings be held in the open so that the nation could watch, warning that close-door investigations would create doubts about its outcome. Sirajul Haq said the entire responsibility of weeding out corruption could not be left to the courts, and the masses should also rise and should hold accountability of the corrupt through their vote and demolish the idols of conceit and pride.

He reiterated that an operation was necessary against financial terrorists. He said the people had burdened each and every Pakistani with huge debt because of the IMF and World Bank loans. He said the JI would go to any extent to recover ill-gotten wealth.

Sirajul Haq termed the attack on the Chaman border a blunder by Kabul and said that the sooner Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered an apology for it the better. He said Afghanistan and Pakistan required each other’s support and they must make joint efforts for peace and progress. He said the Chaman attack also proved the failure of Pakistan’s foreign ministry. It was surprising, he said, that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could not find a suitable person as foreign minister. The prime minister should explain to the nation why there was no foreign minister of the nation, he said. It seemed the prime minister did not trust anybody except himself, he added.  

Sirajul Haq said fresh elections sans electoral reforms would be a joke as the coterie of the corrupt always managed to reach the assemblies. He said in every election, the general public hoped for change of faces but they were disappointed as bigger thieves managed to return to the assemblies. He said he was striving to shake the status quo so that instead of the feudal lords, waderas, capitalists, farmers and workers could return to the assemblies.

Meanwhile, he greeted former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanya on his election as the new chief of Palestinian liberation movement Hamas.