Train march towards Islamabad on June 25, says Siraj

PESHAWAR: Rejecting the recently unveiled federal budget, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Thursday announced to launch a train march towards Islamabad on June 25 from Rahimyar Khan against the intolerable price-hike, joblessness and usury-based system.

Addressing a news conference here, JI chief Sirajul Haq said a national economic consultative meeting would be held in Islamabad on June 23 before the train march. “Economic experts from across the country will present an alternative programme for the current interest-based system, which is run on the dictation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said, and urged the members of parliament to reject the budget.

“This budget is a certificate of slavery; an economic drone attack on the people and an order sheet from the IMF,” he added. Accompanied by provincial president of the party, Prof Mohammad Ibraheem Khan, Sirajul Haq said that the budget was aimed at eliminating the poor and serving the interests of the elite class.

He said that the multi-party government in the centre presented the budget. The federal and provincial budgets would further exacerbate the situation and prices of daily items would go higher.

He said that owing to the flawed policies of the financial anarchy was spreading in the country. “The unbearable price-hike is affecting the law-and-order situation,” he added. He said that the federal government has allocated Rs800 billion for development projects, while it was unclear as to wherefrom the funds would be arranged.

He said that the current and the previous governments were two sides of the same coin as both had surrendered to the IMF. He criticised the recent hike in the petroleum and electricity prices. “Another bomb has fallen on the people in the shape of unprecedented hike in the prices of petroleum products and power tariffs,” he added.

The JI chief said that the ruling elites of the country were getting perks worth Rs200 billion. The rulers were using their offices for their personal businesses as the assets of the leaders of the ruling parties had swelled during their tenures.

He said that the poor people were dying of hunger, while the elite class was getting perks in trillions. He said that no one else but the rulers of the country were responsible for the worsening mess.

He added that the forests in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were under fire. “Some 300 incidents of wild fire have been reported so far,” he said, adding the green gold of the province was burning, while the rulers were not free to take notice of it.

He said that political anarchy was prevailing in the country as a shameful game was played in Punjab the other day. Separate meetings of the assembly were arranged, which was a matter of shame in the political history of the country, he added.

He said that the former prime minister during his visit to Karachi a Rs11 billion package was announced for the port city but a single penny could not be released. Similarly, he said, countless promises were made with Baluchistan during the past many years but none of the promies could be honored.

Sirajul Haq said funds could not be released to the tribal districts after their merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The government, he added, had promised to issue three percent of the federal divisible pool for the tribal district, but no such funds could be released so far.

He said that the real cause of the crisis in the country was the outdated system, which remains the same even after the change in governments. He said that the real solution to the problems of the masses was the replacement of the current system with Islamic one.