Outages have exposed false claims of rulers: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Sirajul Haq has said serious energy crisis in the country has exposed false claims of erstwhile rulers.

Addressing different delegations at Mansoora on Wednesday, he said the masses were facing worst loadshedding even at Sehr and Iftar times in the sizzling heat while the outgoing rulers were most shamelessly saying that they were not responsible for the energy crisis and the caretakers were to be blamed for that. He said no major dam was built in the country during the last seventy years which had resulted in severe water shortage and acute energy crisis and the nation had to face the consequences. He said that not a single long-term development project could be made in the past only due to the personal agenda of the rulers.

Sirajul Haq said nature had blessed the country with abundant resources in every field besides surplus water but the rulers had not built new dams thus putting country’s future at stake. He said Pakistan has the capacity to generate two lakh fifty thousand Mega Watt of electricity and feasibility reports in this regard were already available. He said the past rulers had been concentrating on electricity production through oil and gas only for their commissions and hydel power projects were not initiated because there was no commission. He said the MMA would give top priority to energy generation and would provide cheap energy for which new dams would be built with national consensus. He said MMA would open the door of development to the poor masses. He said that the MMA was issuing tickets to honest and competent people. He said past government had not given due attention to the development of the individuals and the entire attention was given to serve the interests of a particular lobby which had always been in power. Meanwhile, addressing a ceremony JI secretary general Liaqat Baloch said the religious voters would have to stand united behind the MMA to safeguard the ideological and physical boundaries of the country. Liaqat Baloch said MMA has announced its Islamic, democratic and revolutionary manifesto which aimed at enforcement of Nizam-e-Mustafa, safeguarding national sovereignty and achieving economic prosperity through development of agriculture, industry and manpower besides ensuring rights of minorities, the youth and the womenfolk.