LAHORE - Jamat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq has said that corruption is the major problem of Pakistan and a national level movement is required to defeat this system of exploitation in the country.
He expressed these views while addressing Lahore High Court Bar Association yesterday.
The JI chief said the PM presented himself thrice for accountability but on television and not before any court or department concerned. Jamat-i-Islami is coalition partner of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa but, so far, it has not announced whether to participate or not in the PTI’s Islamabad rally to be held on Nov 2.
He said the country could not be prosperous being ruled by mafia of corrupt and dishonest. He said corrupts were becoming more prosperous by every passing day. They did never want accountability, he said. He also criticised the state functionaries saying that a thief could not hold accountable to another thief.
He said for last 70 years, the country could not find a true leadership. The election commission and all anti-corruption institutions were hijacked by the rulers, he further said.
Sirajul Haq the lawyers always played historic role in the Pakistan movement as also for the end of the dictatorship in the country, and it was time that they came forward for eradication of corruption and for bringing forth an honest and sincere leadership in the country. He said that the lawyers’ movement had thrown out Pervez Musharraf and the present rulers had become a threat to the country’s geographical and ideological boundaries.
He said the government and the democracy in the country were in the hands of political pundits and international establishment. The true representatives of the masses could not reach the corridors of power during the last seventy years. The disciples of the British and the US slaves ruling the country so far had been pursuing the strategy of divide and rule. They had kept the nation split in racial, ethnic and sectarian grouping and shattered the national unity and cohesion. The present anarchy and dissent was the result of their policies.
Sirajul Haq said that unjust distribution of the country’s resources and total disregard to merit had promoted terrorism in the country. When talented young men were denied their right, they got frustrated and were ready to kill others and become suicide bombers, he said. As such, wiping out corruption and injustice was vital for ending terrorism.
He said that provision of education, health justice and employment to the masses was the constitutional obligation of the government but no government so far had paid attention to these. The masses were disappointed and were in search of a savior, he said.
The JI chief said that the present and the past rulers had looted the national wealth with both hands, and deposited the plundered money abroad. He said he wanted across the board accountability including that of the Prime Minster.
Sirajul Haq said that everybody wanted a change but a change would not come with the change of rulers and government. A change was possible only by bringing forward a neat and clean leadership to power. And to achieve this goal, everybody must change himself/ herself.
He was confident that a record number of the Lahorites besides the lawyers would attend the JI’s march against corruption in the city on March thirty. At the end, he strongly criticized Quetta’s terrorists attack.
President Lahore High Court Bar Association Rana Zia Abdur Rahman welcomed the JI chief on the occasion. Secretary Bar, Anas Ghazi, also spoke on the occasion. Justice rtd Hafiz Abdur Rahman Ansari, Ch. Khalid Farooq, and JI deputy chiefs Asadullah Bhutto and Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha were also present.