SWABI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq on Saturday reiterated call for the accountability of all corrupt leaders before the 2018 general elections.

Addressing a public meeting in the Government High School’s playground here, Mr Siraj said his party was committed to continuing with the fight against corruption and corrupt leaders until it was showed results.

He said the country faced economic decline while barrowing money and foreign debt accumulated as the leadership adopted the British system and ignored the Islamic system which is the only panacea of all our ills.

He said the recent passage of the Election Bill by parliament to reelect disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the PML-N head violated democratic norms and principles.

“That legislation went against the aspirations of the people as well as against the apex court’s verdict in the Panama Papers case. The PML-N leaders committed a blunder by doing so,” he said, wondering how a corruption convict could be reelected as a political party’s president.

The JI chief said when leaders of the ruling parties focused their attention of accumulating wealth and serving own interests, how they could work the country and people’s welfare.

He said after his ouster as PM, there was a need for stricter actions against Nawaz Sharif.

“The 436 other corrupt political leaders named in the Panama Leaks should also be brought to justice,” he said.

Mr Siraj said it was ironic that the country’s top leadership always looked to the US for consent in all affairs but the US used it to serve own global agenda.

He said that practice should come to an end without delay. JI provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan complained about the plight of Muslims across the world.

He said Afghanistan had been in turmoil for the last three decades; Syria had been in a state of war for five years; the slaughtering of Iraqi people had been continuing for a long time; Yemen had long been burning, and there was no letup in the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The JI leader said over 0.5 Rohingya Muslims had fled to Bangladesh and thus, leading a miserable life in camps.

He said Myanmar Muslims faced a threat of health disaster.

Mr Mushtaq complained that none of Muslim rulers in the world had visited Rohingya camps to offer support to them.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2017