JI to mobilise masses against govt decision on SBP: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has expressed the resolve to mobilise the public for offering tough resistance to the PTI government against “its decision of giving the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under the IMF control” in the name of granting complete autonomy to the most vital financial institution of the country.

He said this while talking to the media after offering condolences to the family of the deceased JI leader Haroonur Rasheed on Tuesday, said a JI spokesman. Sirajul Haq said JI would hold a round-table conference on April 8 in Islamabad to discuss the situation faced by SBP and the PTI decision to relieve it from the state control. He said the country’s leading economic experts and leaders of political parties had been invited to chalk out the strategy to prevent the government from further damaging the economy of the country.

The government, he said, would be asked to implement the decision proposed in the conference to fix the deteriorating economy and put the things in order. If the rulers continued making anti-people policies on the dictation of the international lending agencies, the JI would have no option but to mobilize the masses against it by launching “Go-IMF-Go” movement in near future, he warned.

The former senator lamented that the PTI had badly failed to fulfil the commitments it had made with the people before elections. Those coming to power by wooing people with rosy dreams under magical change have thrown the masses into an abyss of hardships and hunger.

Nearly three years have passed but Imran government couldn’t launch a single project of public welfare during the period, he said, adding the claim of the prime minister to transform Pakistan into a Madina-like state proved a pack of lies. He said the people were desperate and wanted to get rid of this incapable setup which proved itself worse than its predecessors.

He said the PTI government, like the PML-N and PPP, also proved itself an agent of the status quo. He said the JI with its clean and honest leadership was the only option left with the people and if they voted JI into power, the country would be transformed into a true Islamic welfare state as dreamt by its forefathers. He said the economy could be put on track by abolishing the interest-based banking system and cruel economic, industrial and agriculture policies.