Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Senator Siraj has urged the government annul all anti-poor agreement with the IMF and immediately announce decrease in prices of essential food items.

Addressing a large crowd gathered in Mingora on Sunday to protest against skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, he said, “Poor are starving and thousands lost their jobs during in past few months due to flawed economic policies of the PTI government.”

He said as the JI kicked off the anti-inflation campaign with the warning that the government either announce relief to the public or get ready to go home. He announced that protest rallies will be organized in all major and small cities and government will be forced to mend its way.

Reminding the prime minister his own words he made before coming into power that rulers would be considered corrupt if there would be inflation, the JI chief said the people got right to denounce the present regime as incapable and corrupt . He asked the prime minister to imagine the situation of a common man if as a chief executive of the country he was unable to meet the expenditures of a two member family from his salary of Rs200,000.

It was quite understandable, he added, the rulers were least interested in addressing the miseries of the people. Instead of providing jobs and homes to the public, he said, the government had now started building shelter homes and langar khanas (free food points).

All the claims of the PTI chairman to provide jobs to millions of youth and build homes for homeless proved a pack of lies, he added. The ruling party, he said, deceived the public in the name of ‘change’ and now its leaders could not face the masses. This government, he said, was imposed on the country as all the cabinet members either served under Parvez Musharraf or they were imported from the IMF.

Terming it partial and politically motivated, Senator Siraj also rejected the so-called anti-corruption drive started by the government. He questioned why the masses were not being told the names of those who created fake flour and sugar crisis and earned billions of rupees through it.

The JI chief vowed to start a ruthless campaign against corrupt mafia, bring back the looted money which was stashed in foreign banks by the ruling class and turn the country into a real Islamic welfare state if the JI was voted to power.

He said only honest and dedicated leadership could bring real change and provide relief to masses.

A large number of people holding national and JI flags took part in the rally and chanted slogans against the government flawed policies.