LAHORE  - Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has said that government’s failure to initiate accountability of other people named in the Panama Papers after the Sharif family clearly shows it does not want to continue the accountability process.  

Addressing the central leadership of the JI at Mansoora, he called upon the NAB chairman to dig out the files of around 150 cases of mega corruption pending with the NAB and bring the culprits to the dock without further delay.  

The meeting attended by JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch, deputy chiefs of the JI and deputy secretaries general of the party resolved to continue the movement for accountability with full vigour until plunderers of public wealth and those devouring bank loans are hauled up and made to return their ill-gotten wealth to the public exchequer.  

At the meeting, the JI chief called upon the government to take up Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s issue with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during his visit to the country and press for her immediate release. Dr Aafia Siddiqui has been in solitary confinement in the US jail for the last fifteen years.  

Sirajul Haq said that after the opening of the cases against the Sharif family it was the responsibility of the government to raise its voice for the accountability of the others but its attitude showed that it was obstructing the process by itself. He said that on one hand the country was burdened under a huge foreign debt and the general public was facing crippling price spiral while on the other corrupt elements had been given a free hand to plunder the public money.  

The JI chief said that Pakistan had rescued an American couple and their three children in a successful operation and a mere expression of goodwill from the US president was not enough. He said if the US president truly desired good ties with this country he should stop the “Do More” mantra and release Dr Aafia Siddiqui. He however said there were reports that the US Secretary of State was coming here mainly for the release of CIA agent Shakil Afridi.  

He said the US was spending millions to win over people of Pakistan.  He said that hearts of Pakistanis throbbed with Dr Aafia’s. He said the US was wasting a big amount of its budget without knowing sentiments of Pakistanis. The US must realise that it cannot not earn good will of Pakistanis unless it releases Dr Aafia, he said.