To salvage country from financial crisis: JI chief calls for national dialogue on economy

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir Sirajul Haq has called for national dialogue on economy to bring the country out of prevailing economic crises. Presiding over a “Qazi Hussain Ahmed Memorial Seminar” on Thursday, he said that poor nations could not develop policies by themselves.

Sirajul Haq asserted that the foreign ministers of the Muslim world could not dare to recognize Afghanistan during the OIC meeting in Islamabad because of the US pressure, adding, “The fact is that the majority of the rulers of Islamic countries are continuously failing to raise voice according to the wishes of their people on the matters of critical importance directly related to the Ummah.”

He maintained that it was also the fact the majority in Islamic countries was living in desperate conditions and the rulers were holding billions of dollars of assets. He lamented that seven decades had passed but the Kashmir and Palestine issues were not resolved.

Besides, Indian and Israeli forces were involved in genocides of Kashmiris and Palestinians but international organizations and western powers were constantly silent. “It is an irony that the rulers of Muslim world are hesitant to take bold stance and only issue soft statements on the human rights abuses in the occupied regions,” said JI chief, adding that the PTI government had failed to make decisive stance on Kashmir cause.

The government, he said, kept the status quo intact on other matters related to economy, foreign and internal policies. “The nation needs to take stance against the corrupt system and start a peaceful democratic struggle to transform Pakistan into welfare Islamic state, maintained JI emir.

The seminar “Pakistan’s national interests and development of our Afghan policy”, was also addressed by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, PMLN Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, ANP Senator Hidayatullah, Hizab-e-Islami Afghanistan spokesperson Gharait Baheer, former ISI chief Lt. General (retd) Asad Durrani, former diplomats Abdul Basit and Ayaz Wazir, JI MNA Abdul Akbar Chitrali, JI foreign affairs director Asif Luqman Qazi and former MNAs Dr Samia Raheel Qazi and Ayesha Syed.

Speakers paid tribute to the religious and national services of the JI former chief, saying Qazi Hussain Ahmed spent his entire life struggling for unity of Ummah and promoting democratic and Islamic values in Pakistan. Seminars and conferences were held in different cities to mark the ninth death anniversary of former JI emir.