LAHORE - Jamaat-e- Islami Amir Sirajul Haq says it is not difficult for his party to dislodge the PTI government but it wants to ensure that fruits of change go to people, not anybody else.

“The JI does not want to push the nation into a closed street,” he said while addressing a party congregation.

Sirajul Haq said that the PTI would not have been exposed had it not come to power. He said the chapters of the PPP, the PML (N) and the PTI had been closed by now.

According to him, these parties hold public meetings during the day but are in contact with one another during the night. As such, they could not be trusted at all. He said that at the time for the election of the Senate Chairman, the PPP and the PTI stood in the same line. “We are the real opposition and have come into the field as an alternative force”.

Sirajul Haq noted that a lawyer who had been arguing against interest in the Federal Shariat Court during the PML (N) government was now the PTI’s counsel and was advancing arguments in support of interest.

The JI Chief said that Islam’s enemies had attacked the Muslim world but the Muslim rulers were hostage in the enemy hands. “What sort of Muslim rulers these are who are calling the US for their defence”, he asked. He said that only a well-organized religious movement and force could face these challenge. Sirajul Haq said that the IMF did not simply grant loan, it also imposed its culture and educational syllabi on Pakistan. He said that as many as 73 countries had availed IMF debt but none of these could develop. On the other hand, they got poorer day by day.

He said that when the PTI came into power, the JI had presented its 17 point economic proposals and gave it wise counsel but unfortunately, it paid no heed and proved a continuation of the status quo.

The JI chief expressed his gratitude to the tribal people for their support to his party in the recent provincial assembly election. He said the JI candidates had lost only by a small margin and attempts were also made to divide JI votes. Despite that, the tribal people had voted for the JI in large numbers.

He said that the JI had started preparations for local bodies’ elections and it would hold a grand public meeting at Peshawar on August 25.

About the offer by US President Trump and some other countries for mediation on Kashmir, he said, it had highlighted the Kashmir issue at world level. He said people of Pakistan would stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kashmiris.

He called upon the federal government to provide more funds for Azad Kashmir, Baltistan and Gilgit so that these areas became a model for the people of Azad Kashmir and motivated the people of Held Kashmir to support this country.