LAHORE:  Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq has said that one can imagine about the overall plundering of the corrupt rulers of the country when a single minister of swallows Rs. 462 billion of the national exchequer.

 Addressing the concluding session of the JI central workshop at Mansoora yesterday, Sirajul Haq said that the two major parties of the country had fixed their turns in the government and were protecting each other’s corruption, and had virtually failed all institutions for accountability. He said that those who had cried foul over the arrest of the concerned minister had already been exposed. 

 He recalled that a former chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had stated on record that corruption to the tune of Rs. 12 billion was taking place in the country every day. He said that an effective control over corruption and recovery of the plundered wealth lying abroad could free the country from the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) and also provide sufficient funds for mega projects including dams. 

 The JI chief said that those ruling the country for the last 68 years were working on colonial powers’ agenda and the US had thrust its agents of the national institutions to achieve its nefarious designs.

 He said that the amount plundered by the corrupt leaders and bureaucrats was many times higher than the total amount of loan received from the IMF and World Bank so far.  He vowed not to rest till the country was freed from the corrupt rulers.

 Terming corruption as the mother of all evils, Sirajul Haq urged the nation, including the religious leaders, journalists, lawyers, workers, and farmers to support the JI campaign against corruption considering it a religious duty and carry it to the logical end. 

 The JI chief said that electoral corruption could be effectively controlled by the Election Commission by enforcing the articles 62 and 63 of the constitution as would obstruct the election of the wealthy and facilitate the election of common people to the assemblies.