Exchequer debt: JI demands slashing of government expenses

The central shoora of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan, has demanded slashing the federal cabinet by half and substantial reduction in the expenditure of the presidency and the Prime Minister's House to release the burden on the public exchequer.
Expressing deep concern over the worsening economic conditions of the country, the meeting with JI chief, Syed Munawar Hasan in the chair, also called for taxing all incomes, effective check on tax evasion and corruption, recovery of all written off loans and bringing back the ill-gotten wealth of the rulers in the foreign banks in order to put the country's economy on sound footing.
The JI central advisory body, through a resolution, noted that Pakistan has suffered financial losses of more than 68 billion dollars in the US war on terror while the annual corruption in the country is of more than 6,000 billions rupees as scandals of rulers' corruption are the talk of the town all over the country. The shoora demanded saying farewell to IMF and the World Bank and adopting the path of self-reliance.
In order to generate cheap electricity, the JI shoora called for building at-least four major dams at the earliest besides power generation through Thar coal. It proposed placing the NAB under the Supreme Court to ensure impartial accountability.
Through another resolution, the shoora noted that education has been badly neglected by the rulers and primary education had suffered the most due to wrong decision of the governments. It especially referred to the introduction of compulsory English medium in the Punjab and Chinese language in Sindh. It disapproved different education systems running parallel in the country, which had divided the society in classes. The quality of education in government schools was poor whereas education in the private sector had become a business. Off late, the charges in government institutions had been raised tremendously, closing the door of these institutions to the poor students.
JI shoora noted that thousands of schools had been washed away by rains in Sindh and terrorists attacks in the tribal areas. It, therefore, demanded construction of schools, on war footing. It rejected the decision of handing over education to provinces under the devolution plan and said this would undermine national harmony. It demanded that the responsibility of preparing the educational syllabus must be with the federal government. The shoora congratulated Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba on its grand convention in the city and said that the students are the future of the country. In a situation when the country is under the US attack and there were persistent efforts to turn the country into a secular state, IJT is a ray of hope for the nation.