Siraj calls for austerity measures to pay off debts

CHAKDARRA: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq on Wednesday underlined the need for ensuring the just distribution of resources to free the country from the clutches of the international money-lending organisations. Addressing a ceremony here, he urged the rulers to adopt austerity measures and ensure financial discipline to pay off the burgeoning foreign debt.

JI leaders Maulana Asadullah, Member Provincial Assembly Aizazul Mulk Afkari, Saeed Gul, District Nazim Malik Muhammad Rasul Khan, District vice Nazim Abdur Rasheed, Yaqoobur Rehman, former Member Provincial Assembly Dr Zakirullah Khan and others were present on the occasion.

Sirajul Haq said seminaries were the citadels of Islam. He added that around three million students were receiving religious education at madrassas. Calling for the enforcement of Sharia rule, Sirajul Haq said it was responsibility of the state to take care of the orphans and widows. He said the poor were getting poorer while the rich were getting richer under the system being vogue in the country. "We need extensive reforms to replace the obsolete system with Islam that guarantees justice and equality," he stressed. He said the government was bound to provide health and education facilities to the people at their doorstep. Criticising the government for the alarming rate of unemployment, the JI leader said that the educated youth was an asset to the country but there were no opportunities for them.