JI’s proposed electoral reforms to help solve problems, says Siraj

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq has said the PTI government has become a victim of its own policies. The electoral reforms proposed to the Election Commission of Pakistan by Jamaat-e-Islami contain a complete solution to all the problems, he said while addressing a meeting of central Shoora of JI Kisan Wing at Mansoora on Thursday.

He vowed not to let the 1,100 corrupt people named in Panama Leaks and Pandora Papers get away, saying JI wanted across the board accountability for all. The JI is peacefully striving to bring Allah’s system in the country, he stated.

He said in a 70 percent agricultural country, the farmers are facing difficulties and agriculture is in a shambles. It is ridiculous to talk of development in country without the welfare of farmers, he added. Sirajul Haq said while fixing the prices of agricultural commodities sugarcane, cotton, wheat, rice and maize, the government should also nominate farmers' representatives as members of the National Economic Coordination Committee. What is more, injustice and economic murder of the farmers is that the farmers are not represented in the Economic Coordination Committee while fixing the prices of agricultural commodities, he added.

He said that an agricultural price control committee should be formed and farmers' representatives should also be included in it to check the sharp rise in prices of fertilisers and pesticides. The government is issuing cards to provide fertilisers and seeds to farmers at discounted rates, but the benefits of this discounted package are negligible, the JI chief said. Farmers are being robbed by capitalists due to which the agriculture sector will further decline in the future. He demanded that the government take the farmers into confidence in this matter and formulate a joint mechanism after consulting the farmers' organisations which would directly benefit the farmers. He said thousands of valuable acres of land washed away every year due to erosion of rivers across the country. The government should immediately release funds for the construction of safety barriers at rivers. The increase in prices of fertilisers and seeds at the time of sowing of wheat has caused severe mental distress to the farmers.