SAHIWAL: The assets of Sharif family have rapidly increased during the last three decades but they have no money trail for such wealth, which needs to be explained.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) emir Sirajul Haq said this during a media talk at the residence of Rao Nasim Hashim, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader from Pakpattan district.

Alleging that the prime minster’s family was directly involved in money laundering, he said it became morally binding on Nawaz Sharif to tender resignation from the office.

He said JI did not want derailing of democracy in the country, but democracy did not mean “only Main Sahib has the right to rule”.

He said Nawaz Sharif must step down and hand over premiership to someone from his party. “This will also allow him (an opportunity) to unearth conspiracies being hatched against his government”, he said.

He said Jammat would wait for the Supreme Court judgment on Panama case, hoping the matter would be decided in the apex court and not on the roads and crossing.

The JI emir said the people of Pakistan had trust in the judiciary and hoped the institution would not breach it.

He said the JI wanted across the board accountability, but did not mention who must be included in the ongoing process.

He said the JI was trying hard to unite components of now defunct Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for the upcoming election and hoped the religious vote would be under one umbrella.

Criticising the government’s Kashmir policy he said a tough stance on the issue was need of the hour. “Because of our week stance (on Kashmir) the Saudis’ give preference to Modi,” he said.

Mr Haq said he was visiting different districts of Punjab to get support for his campaign against corruption.

Factory sealed: The district livestock department has sealed a feed factory and an oil mill for making polluted and germ-infected animal feed at 133/9-L village on Tuesday.

A department team also got registered cases against 17 people, including the feed mill owner and a contractor under Punjab Animal Feed Stuff and Compound Feed Act 2016.

Police said all the suspects fled the scene during the raid.

According to the District Livestock Officer Dr Shafaqat Ali the department had received public complaints regarding manufacturing of unhygienic feed popularly called ‘Khal’ in a factory linked with an oil mill.

Acting on the complaints, a team raided the factory and confiscated chemicals, rotten cotton seeds and other components being used for making animal feed that was unhygienic.

He said the factory owner Mumtaz Goraya and contractor Amjad Majeed managed to escape during the raid. He said the factory had been sealed.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2017