SUKKUR: Jamaat-i-Islami Pak­is­tan emir Sirajul Haq has said that after having taken action against Sharif brothers, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should now go after the remaining 436 people who face identical charges of money laundering.

Mr Haq said at a media talk at the press club here on Friday the main problem the country faced was corruption. “We have been saying all along since Panama leaks hit headlines that action should be taken against all the persons on the list who have usurped public money,” he said.

He demanded across the board accountability of all those who had burdened the country with heavy loans as well as those who had misappropriated Rs1,500 billion. Pakistan Peoples Party had remained in power for more than a decade but it failed to bring healthy change to people’s lives, he said.

He said that change occurred only in rulers’ lifestyle but no change took place in public’s lives. Those who were working in factories and on farmland continued to face abject poverty and deprivation while life’s facilities and luxuries were available only to elite class, he said.

Mr Haq said that present government too burdened the poor by increasing rates of gas supply and imposing taxes on people. Was this the change the party [PTI] had been referring to before election? People did not cast votes for such change, he said.

He called Sindh “ideological vein” of Pakistan and said sadly he did not see happiness on the faces of people in Sindh since their difficulties had only increased. Thanks to ill-advised policies of rulers people were deprived of clean water and children continued to die in Thar due to drought but the government regarded it as a petty issue, he said.

He said that if he talked on Sindh’s issues, it would upset the government because Sindh’s rulers had a habit of dismissing human issues as a petty problem. Poor people were dying due to poverty and it was the responsibility of the government to feed them and provide them facilities of healthcare, he said.

He said that 30 per cent people of upper Sindh were disappointed over unemployment. When there was no education how would people be able to make progress in life? Share of water for Sindh should be fixed, he said.

He said that Sindh always faced injustices as it was not supplied complete share of water, which in turn harmed peasants. Otherwise, Sindh’s peasants worked hard even though there was less or belated supply of irrigation water, he said.

He said that state’s resources were not property of any Khan or wadera. People had too many expectations in the present government which it would have to fulfil.

Mr Haq said that he was dismayed at the slow process of NAB. Nobody in the country was above the law; NAB should also arrest all those who had got their loans waived off, he said.

He said that people of Sindh had always made PPP successful in election but the party failed to do anything for them. JI had always raised voice for the issues of Thar in the Senate, he said.

He criticised highhandedness of police with students of Peshawar University and said it was sad to use batons against them.

He said that drastic changes be made in judiciary so that people got justice without spending huge sums of money.

The fundamental work of the Supreme Court was provision of justice to people, he said, adding that there should be no ban on journalists’ community.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018