PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said on Friday that differences between the army and the public were growing, and asked the government not to further widen this gap by its actions.

Addressing the opening ceremony of a party membership camp set up at Chowk Yadgar here, he said all the stakeholders should go to their constitutional positions, or the chaos would further intensify.

The JI chief said in the ongoing lawlessness and friction between the police and the army in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, everyone needed to look inward. He said that those wielding more power also had more responsibility.

Hafiz Naeem said that the army and the government should also need to ensure that the situation didn’t deteriorate further.

He said that if the political forces didn’t sit together on law and order issue, then the chaos would further increase.

However, he said if all the parties were not ready to sit with each other, then his party was ready to play its role in bringing them together on the negotiating table to devise a joint strategy.

“Only a unanimously devised strategy could save Pakistan from internal and external conspiracies,” he said.

The JI chief said that Pakistan was currently in a tight spot; however, he added it did not mean that everything was right in the past.

He said Pakistan’s ruling elites were responsible for the current mess that the country found itself in. “They are responsible for the poverty and lawlessness in the country,” he said. He said that ruling elite divided the people so that it could keep enjoying its rule.

Besides, he said everyone should stick to their constitutional limits for the good of the country.

The JI chief said a small clique of ruling elite had usurped the resources of the country and the public had to rid itself of their rule.

He said his party would hold the government accountable if it did not implement an agreement both sides had signed to bring down electricity prices, reduce taxes and inflation in the country. He said the ruling elites should not have free electricity, petrol and heavy vehicles at the expense of the public.

The JI chief said that his party would use public pressure to prevent the ruling elites from using these perks.

He said more than 20 million children were out of school across the country, and education and health were right of every citizen.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2024