Siraj for completing reforms before polls

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has warned that with the rising public awareness, all those soiled in corruption from top to toes are joining new parties to find new political shelters so that they could evade accountability. 

The country could not be put back on the road to success unless the prime minister and his family, the past rulers and all accused of plundering public money must be brought to accountability and every penny of the looted wealth be recovered from them including those in foreign bank accounts, he said while addressing a meeting at Mansoora on Wednesday. He also called for comprehensive electoral reforms to prevent the entry of the corrupt into the assemblies in future. He said it was time the political dacoits and thieves must not be allowed to escape. The nation fully knew the plunderers dressed in the guise of the elite, he added.

Sirajul Haq said the foremost issue before the nation was the recovery of the plundered wealth of the Pakistanis lying in foreign banks. People, he said, wanted that the process of accountability should also be followed by the recovery of this wealth and without this recovery, the process in paying off the huge debts of the country and providing basic facilities to the masses. He called upon Election Commission to ensure that political reforms must be completed before next elections otherwise the process of accountability would remain incomplete and the corrupt would again find chance to go into assemblies and high offices. He said recovered wealth would easily help to ensure electoral reforms before the 2018 elections. Besides, he said, the electoral rolls must be prepared afresh on the basis of the latest census to enable the young men exercise their right to vote.  Meanwhile, British High Commissioner in Pakistan, Thomas Drew called on JI chief at Mansoora and discussed with him matters of bilateral interest. The JI chief reminded the British diplomat that Kashmir issue was the incomplete agenda of the division of subcontinent and it was the responsibility of Britain to complete this agenda. He said the sooner this task was accomplished, the better it would be for restoring peace and stability in the region.

On the occasion, the JI chief appreciated the detailed and comprehensive debate in the British parliament over the Kashmir issue and hoped that Britain would play its role at international level for the resolution of the Kashmir issue in line with the Kashmiris aspirations.

JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch, deputy Secretary General Muhammad Asghar and JI Foreign Affairs chief Abdul Ghaffar Aziz were present. ‘Brutalities of Indian forces: Jamaat-e-Islami naib ameer Hafiz Muhammad Idrees has said brutalities of Indian occupation forces in held Kashmir are increasing with the approach of the martyrdom anniversary of Hizbul Mujahedin leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8. 

In a statement on Wednesday, he said Pakistani nation and Kashmiris all over the world would observe protest day on July 8 to commemorate the martyrdom of Burhan Muzaffar Wani to remind the world community of its duty help Kashmiris realise their long awaited freedom from Indian occupant forces like it did to the people of East Timor, South Sudan and other parts of the world. He said the occupation forces had also killed Burhan’s brother Khalid Muzaffar Wani and were now subjecting their remaining family members with worst form of state terrorism. Their father Prof Muzaffar Wani had been arrested from his home and shifted to unknown torture centre while the women members of the family were also missing.