LAHORE - Iranian Counsel General Majid Sadeqhi Dowlatabadi called on Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq at Mansoora Monday and discussed with him ‘relations between the two countries as well as regional situation”.

The JI chief stressed the need for forging unity among the Muslim countries to cope with challenges, including regional peace. “Satanic forces want to create rift among Muslims thus the Ummah should strive to shun mutial differences,” he said, adding that the JI was an ideological party and the “unity of the Ummah was its religious foundation.

Iranian diplomat said he would try to discharge his duties in the best possible manner and to strengthen the ties between Iran and Pakistan. He said that the Muslim world’s policies towards the US were not changed with the change of faces in the US. He said his country had successfully faced all the challenges in the past and would do so in future.

Meanwhile, JI chief talking to different delegations said that the plight of the general public in the country was deteriorating with every passing day and the so called economic stability being talked about by the Federal Interior Minister was nowhere to be seen. He said that  almost half of the country’s population was living below the poverty line and eighty per cent people could not get clean drinking water. He said the agricultural and industrial produce had fallen considerably and the water crisis was looming large. “There is steep rise in the imports and exports are negligible. Foreign exchange reserves are falling fast,” he said, adding in such a situation, the rulers’ claims of economic progress were tantamount to rubbing salt on the wound of the poor masses. In separate statement, JI chief expressed deep grief over the martyrdom of Captain Hasnain and three troops in Kurram mine blast. He said the martyrs’ families were the pride of the entire nation.