PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said that strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are result of the acts of few individuals.

He said that Afghan Taliban should act with responsibility if there was evidence that their soil was being used against Pakistan. “When it is said that Afghan soil is being used for carrying out militant attacks in Pakistan and there is substance available, Afghan Taliban should act with responsibility,” he told journalists here on Sunday.

The JI chief said that Pakistan and Afghanistan both faced the same situation and jointly offered sacrifices. “That’s why some people are sitting on certain positions. It never means that the entire nation stands against Afghanistan owing to acts of few persons as it will only appease the enemy,” he added.

He said that if one segment wanted to keep its dominance maintained in the country, the other would start hating the first one and it would not be in favour of anyone. He that Bannu incident led to trust deficit.

Hafiz Naeem asks Afghan Taliban to act with responsibility

Mr Rehman said that nobody could differentiate between a militant and a common person and collateral damage during military operations always led to distances. He added that few persons tarnished the image of army.

He stated that JI had been telling rulers that the country was pushed into a war by the US and it destroyed everything. He said that following decision of a few generals in consultation with few politicians, several military operations were conducted in the country during the ‘war of United States’. He added that the war caused $200 billion losses and around 100,000 people including security personnel and civilians lost their lives.

About a re-election in the country, the JI emir questioned if legal documents, Form-45, of the February 8 polls were not available. He stated that total electricity requirement of the country was 31,000 megawatts and that too during peak hours while 22,000 megawatts power was required normally.

He said the country could generate 41,000 megawatts electricity. He questioned the number of independent power producers and said that they could not generate even a single megawatt of electricity but received billions of rupees. He said that it was unjust to receive Rs2,800 billion as capacity charges.

Mr Rehman said that salaried class paid Rs375 billion tax while those having thousands of acers of land paid only Rs5 billion. He demanded of the government to stop provision of free electricity to elite class and make public the accords signed with independent power producers.

He said that traders wanted to pay tax but government was supposed to provide facilities of health, education and security to them. He added that unfortunately Pakistan did not make progress during the last 77 years.

The JI chief said that rulers including military dictators, capitalists and landlords, failed to deliver and they should accept their failure.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024