LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq says the acute energy crisis in the country has exposed the false claims of the development made by the erstwhile rulers.

Talking to different delegations at Mansoora on Wednesday, he said the masses were facing worst loadshedding even at Sehar and Iftar times in the sizzling heat while the outgoing rulers were most shamelessly saying that they were not responsible for the energy crisis and the caretakers were to be blamed for that.

The JI chief said no major dam was built in the country during the last several years which had resulted in severe water shortage and acute energy crisis and the nation had to face the consequences. He said not a single long-term development project could be executed in the past only due to the personal agenda of the rulers.

Sirajul Haq said the nature had blessed the country with abundant resources in every field besides surplus water but the rulers had not built new dams thus putting the country’s future at stake.

The JI chief said Pakistan has the capacity to generate 250,000MW electricity and feasibility reports to the effect are already available. He said the past rulers had been concentrating on electricity production through oil and gas only for their commissions and hydel power projects were not initiated because there was no commission.

He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would give top priority to power generation and would provide cheap energy for which new dams would be built with national consensus.

The JI chief said the MMA would open the door of development to the poor masses. He said the MMA was issuing tickets to ‘honest’ and ‘competent’ people.

He said the past government had not focussed on overall development and the entire attention was given to serve the interests of a particular lobby which had always been in power.

He said politics in the country so far had been the game of the [cruel] feudal lords and capitalists who treated the masses as slaves. However, he said, the times had changed and the masses were fully enlightened and they could reject the elite in the coming election.

LIAQUAT: JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch, who is also secretary general of the MMA, has said that the religious voters would have to stand united behind the MMA to safeguard the ideological and physical boundaries of the country.

Speaking at an Iftar progrmame in Clifton Colony, he said the politics of expediencies and selfish interests had failed and the forthcoming elections would be a contest between the oppressor and the oppressed and the Islamic ideology and secularism. He was confident that the MMA would defeat the international establishment through mass support.

Baloch said the MMA has announced its Islamic, democratic and revolutionary manifesto which aimed at enforcement of the Nizam-i-Mustafa, safeguarding the national sovereignty and achieving economic prosperity through development of agriculture, industry and manpower besides ensuring the rights of the minorities, the youth and the womenfolk. He urged the voters to express their confidence in the religious and patriotic leadership.

He said the country already had solid foundations for self-reliance, and development and a sincere, competent and patriotic leadership would pull the homeland out of the crisis it was facing.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2018