Action in Karachi must go on, says Siraj

PESHAWAR: Reiterating his party’s demand for action against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for inciting violence in Karachi, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq on Sunday offered to constitute a jirga for resolving the basic issues of the people in Balochistan.
“If those involved in extortion and killing of innocent people were spared, it will convey a message that the bureaucracy in Islamabad is also behind these acts,” he told a two-day gathering of party leaders at its regional headquarters, Al-Markaz-e-Islami on Sunday.
The JI chief said extortion and politics cannot go together. He added that international powers, including a European country, wanted to patch up things between the government and MQM but they would not accept the involvement of any agency or country in the affairs of Pakistan.
“The government should constitute a judicial commission to end the fake mandate claimed by a party in Karachi and let the public elect their true representatives,” Sirajul Haq suggested. He asked the government to announce Rs500 billion package for development of Karachi.
“The political party that shares power with the MQM is also involved in their wrongdoings,” said the JI chief. Sirajul Haq lashed out at the successive governments for their role in the deteriorating situation in Balochistan and said the men in the province have been forced to live in the mountains while the women were compelled to stage protests.
“We are ready to constitute a jirga for settling the issues of Balochistan. The youth of Balochistan is not the enemy of Pakistan but they are against injustice,” said Sirajul Haq.The JI leader said the people were always deceived in the name of nationalism or through the slogans of roti, kapra aur makan.
“The people are disappointed with all of them because the political leaders are becoming richer but the common man doesn’t have even basic facilities,” he continued.Sirajul Haq said the only political party that had solutions to all the basic problems of the people in the country was JI and it was launching a massive campaign in April to reach out to the public.
“A number of people from other political parties are coming to join JI because it is the only Islamic, democratic and welfare party. People are now fed up with the feudal and industrialists in other parties,” he added.
Addressing the gathering, JI provincial chief Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan said that Afghanistan would emerge as the centre of Islam as the United States was pulling out its troops after suffering defeat there.
Minister for Local Government Inayatullah, who belongs to the JI, and other party leaders Shabbir Ahmad Khan, Mushtaq Ahmad and Maulana Ismail also addressed the last session of the gathering.