PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has demanded the removal of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and withdrawal of the mini-budget passed by parliament lately.

Addressing a news conference at his party’s provincial secretariat here on Saturday, the JI chief said the PTI government had sold the State Bank of Pakistan to the International Monetary Fund to obtain $1 billion loan.

He said the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government first handed over Kashmir to India ‘without firing a single bullet’ and later surrendered the state’s financial institutions to the international monetary organisations.

“The State Bank of Pakistan’s governor has been declared a viceroy by giving full autonomy to the bank,” he said, adding that the draft SBP Amendment Bill, 2021, was prepared by the IMF.

Jamaat chief also calls for mini-budget’s withdrawal

He said under the bill passed by the Senate on Friday, the SBP governor was no more answerable to parliament, prime minister and finance minister.

Mr Siraj also criticised opposition parties for ‘facilitating’ the bill’s passage in parliament.

He said the opposition had a majority in the Senate, so it could easily block the proposed law, but it ‘intentionally’ helped the government for its passage.

The JI chief said the SBP bill’s passage proved that the government and major opposition parties were following the agenda of imperialist powers.

He said the amendments proposed by his party to that bill were accepted by the Senate chairman but they were not incorporated in the draft.

Mr Siraj said the Jamaat would hold 100 sit-ins across the country against the ‘brutal system’ of governance, while the decisive 101 sit-in would be staged in Islamabad.

He, however, didn’t give time frame for it.

Replying to a question, the JI chief said his party had nothing to do with the March 23 long march planned by the opposition on Islamabad.

He said the opposition should first explain how the SBP bill sailed through the Senate despite its majority.

Mr Siraj asked the security establishment not to involve itself in politics and said such involvement would defame the state institutions.

He said the PTI, PPP and PML-N were created by the establishment.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022