KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman on Monday reiterated that his party will not be part of any political alliance.
Addressing a meeting of JI functionaries at Idara Noor-e-Haq in Karachi, Naeem said, “Our alliance will be with the youth and the people.”
“There is no [real] “Democracy in political parties,” said the JI leader, adding that parties come to power with the help of the establishment.
The JI leader also said there is “confusion” in the ranks of political parties and that his party cannot support the parties affected by the confusion. The country will hold a general strike on August 28, the JI leader said.
JI demands relief on energy bills
Later, addressing a press conference, the JI leader said a “political emperor” had announced a relief of Rs14 per unit of electricity for two months in Punjab alone, which is “nothing but peanuts”.
He demanded substantial relief on electricity bills for the entire country.
Naeem demanded that the ruling elite provide substantial relief on electricity bills to the nation.
He said the JI is going on strike on August 28, while a mass mobilisation campaign is also on the cards, in addition to the four major public conventions held in various cities over the past 11 days.
Naeem said the JI had signed a 45-day agreement but only 34 days remained. Naeem said the JI would host the youth in the coming days and caravans from all corners of the country would march towards Islamabad if the government failed to fulfil the agreement in letter and spirit.
Regarding the lack of devolution of powers to local governments, he said that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government in Sindh has seized all the considerable powers of the local structure in open defiance of the country's constitution. He explained that the constitution clearly mentions that administrative, monetary and political powers should be transferred to local governments.
Moreover, he said, elected presidents are kept deprived of powers to remove solid waste from roads, the water board and the transport department are outside their purview, and master plan and development authorities are also outside their control.
The JI leader said that the PPP neither fulfils its promises in Karachi nor allows anyone else to do so. He said that the PPP seeks the shelter of democratic slogans otherwise it is a party of fascism at its core.
He also said that the PPP spends billions of rupees on publicity while in practice the post-rain situation in the interior areas of the province is an eye-opener for the nation. Similarly, he added, the patchwork of roads in Karachi cost billions of rupees of taxpayers’ money last year but before the fresh spell of rains, not even a single road was in condition.
Naeem said the water company has to pay billions of dollars in debt to international monetary institutions. He asked where exactly the company sends these huge amounts.
He said that the JI has been playing its due role and as per its promises, the party has been serving the people of Karachi beyond its mandate and capacity. Regarding the power supply and power cut problems of Karachi, he regretted that K-Electric has ruined the city, which was once the City of Lights. He claimed that KE has emerged as the worst face of privatisation.
In the last 19 years, the company’s power generation has come down by a staggering 20 per cent, he said, adding that KE is leading the country when it comes to line losses. Naeem said that KE’s power generation plants are deteriorating, adding that the company is imposing itself on the people of Karachi with the help of corruption and a lunatic nexus between KE, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and the government.
