LAHORE: The success of Pakistan and the Muslim world lies in pursuing their own agenda instead of following the West, said Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq here on Tuesday.

Addressing a meeting of the Milli Majlis-i-Sharaee at Mansoora, he said that Pakistan’s problem was not population, but the unjust distribution of resources and 60 per cent of the cultivable land that was lying unutilised. Had the government paid attention to equitable distribution of national resources, controlling corruption and ploughing of cultivable land, all the problems of the people would have been solved.

Haq said that the countries where population growth had been controlled had their individual and collective peace destroyed. Such countries were now announcing big rewards for producing more children, he claimed.

He further said if development was dependent on low population, Balochistan should have been more prosperous and Punjab backward. But, he said, the situation was just the opposite.

The senator said millions of acres of land lying unused must be cultivated. The farmers and peasants doing so should not only be provided farm machinery and inputs, but such land should be allotted to them. He said if the government made an announcement to this effect today, not only agricultural production would be doubled within a few years, but urbanisation would also be controlled.

The JI chief lauded the importance being given to the construction of dams by the prime minster and chief justice of Pakistan. However, he said, it was also imperative to prepare a mechanism for retrieving the national wealth lying abroad and speed up the accountability process.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018