Sirajul Haq wants permanent commission on NFC award

LAHORE :Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has demanded constituting a permanent commission on National Finance Commission (NFC) award and warned PTI government against further delay in the grant of the award which was a serious violation of the Constitution.

The federation was not serious in sitting with the provinces and resolving issues and grievances with them, he said in a statement on Tuesday. He said entire nation was suffering due to the coronavirus as businesses had collapsed and every citizen was under financial stress. However, he said, the government priority was not to pull the nation out of this stress and it was raising unimportant issues to divert attention from its failures. He said people needed precaution as well as food to live.

Sirajul Haq said the nation was unduly burdened with an army of ministers and advisers whose performance was hard to find, and remarked that addition of ministers and advisers had only led to further decline in PTI government’s performance. He said the government had done nothing to serve the nation or relieve the masses of hardships, except reshuffling of ministers and bureaucrats.

He urged the government to ensure the implementation of its announcement for payment of Rs12,000 to each unemployed person and payment of three electricity bills of the small businessmen by the state. He alleged that the government had so far not been able to provide medical equipment to the medics and ration and financial relief to the daily wage earners.

He added that millions of daily wage earners, workers, besides those doing private jobs and white collar people were suffering from hunger but the ruling elite were claiming it was all OK. Condemning the abnormal rise in the prices of fruits, vegetates and other necessities of life with the advent of Ramazan, he demanded stringent action against the mafia involved in profiteering. He referred to 25 percent fresh fall in the world oil prices and called for reducing petrol price by Rs40 per litre. He also demanded reasonable cut in the prices of DAP, Urea and other fertilizers besides seeds to facilitate the growers in sowing cotton and paddy.

Sixty per cent of the country’s population, he said, lived in the rural areas but the growers were not getting due return for their crops. That was why the agriculture sector was on the decline. He demanded waiving off the water rate and abolishing the markup on loan for purchase of farm machinery. He demanded the state ensure wheat procurement from the growers at its fixed price. The JI leader said the delay in the forensic report of the sugar and wheat scandal clearly meant that there was something wrong and the ruling elite had deprived the general public of billions of rupees. Same was the case of the power sector, he added.

Baloch: Jamaat-e-Islami naib ameer Liaqat Baloch said the PTI government was not in a position to change the 18th constitutional amendment or the NFC Award and it was only raising these issues to hide its failures in addressing public problems.

Addressing a meeting of JI office-bearers from Sindh, Balochistan, KP and Punjab on a video link from Mansoora on Tuesday, he said the government was a failure and the solution lay in mid-term elections held in a fair, impartial and transparent manner. He said the frequent changes in the federal cabinet were raising questions on the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s style of rule.