PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq has said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has damaged the country’s top institutions, which have always been respectable.

Addressing the Students Educational Expo here on Thursday, Mr Siraj said the JI workers would converge on Islamabad on Dec 22 to ‘awaken’ rulers.

He said he was optimistic that hundreds of thousands of people would assemble in the federal capital.

The JI leader said the ruling party was following in the footsteps of dictators and was making efforts to get relief from the court for a dictator.

He said top institutions were national assets, which did not belong to one political party.

JI chief says large crowds to gather in Islamabad on Dec 22 to awaken rulers

“The national institutions will have to work hard to restore their prestige and trust among the people,” he said while referring to the army chief’s extension issue.

Mr Siraj said during the Supreme Court proceedings in the case, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa provided several opportunities to the government and identified mistakes in the extension notification but inefficient people couldn’t correct mistakes.

He said the case had exposed the incompetence and inefficiency of the government.

The JI leader said Prime Minister Imran Khan couldn’t lead over 222 million people, so he should be made the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

He said Imran Khan had made over 100 U-turns since he became the prime minister ‘by default’ 15 months ago.

“I would appoint Imran Khan as the chairman of the cricket board,” he said.

Mr Siraj said the PTI government had virtually mortgaged the country with the international lending agencies to obtain Rs11,000 billion loans.

He said the International Monetary Fund’s employees had been made the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue.

The JI leader said instead of giving relief from high inflation, the government had overburdened the people.

He said the gap between the ruling class and people had widened, while the people had fed up with the current system of governance.

Mr Siraj said the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project had made the life of four million residents of the provincial capital miserable. He said instead of launching mega development projects, the ruling PTI distributed eggs and chickens to people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The JI leader said the government had ruined Peshawar, while roads had shrunk for the execution of the BRT project due to poor planning and faulty designs.

He said instead of launching new projects, the government had restricted itself to the opening of shelter homes and soup kitchens.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2019