JI leader warns govt against amending blasphemy law

TIMERGARA: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan on Sunday warned to march on Islamabad if any change in the blasphemy law and national policy on Palestine was made in Pakistan.

Addressing a party workers’ convention at Talash here, the JI leader said his party would never let the government cross the red line. He said that belief in the finality of the Prophet-hood, madrassas and other institutions and recognition of Israel state were red lines for the nation.

The PTI youth activists Samiullah, Sajjad Khan and Suliman Khan from Matta Talash while ANP worker Hammad Khan from Kanro Shamshi Khan announced to quit their parties and to joined JI on the occasion.

The convention was also addressed by the JI provincial deputy chief Noorul Haq, district head and former MPA Aizazul Mulk Afkari and others.

Mushtaq said that the mafias had surrounded the government that inflicted billions of rupees loss on the nation.

About police action against reassembled vehicles in Malakand division, the JI senator announced to start protest rallies from Wednesday in various parts of Malakand against the recent decision of authorities.

He said that 84,000 labourers in Lower Dir alone had returned from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states during the current year due to Covid-19 pandemic and joblessness. He said the non-custom paid reassembled vehicles had been purchased by poor families in Malakand division for earning their livelihood, not for luxury. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should immediately halt action against those NCP reassembled vehicles in all districts of Malakand region.

About the government performance, the JI provincial chief said that a sum of $23.6 billion had been added to Pakistan’s foreign loans during the last two and a half years.

“About 3 million people have gone beneath the poverty line during this government,” Mushtaq said, adding that the country had witnessed a historical inflation, price hike, unemployment and corruption.

The JI leader alleged the PTI government had continued the costly Independent Power Producers’ (IPPs) accords that unlawfully benefitted the IPPs with Rs1000 billion. He said that all major political parties like the PML-N, PPP, PTI and PML-Q had the same policies.

“They are following the West and America and cannot bring any legislative change without their consent,” he alleged and said that it was the JI that could bring about a real change and make the corrupt accountable.

He said the JI had supported the PTI after the 2013 election as it had announced to establish the ‘Medina State’ but said that now it had been proved the PTI had told a lie.