LAHORE: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) would hold a three-day protest march against inflation from February 10, announced JI’s Secretary General Amirul Azeem, saying the party would resist the government’s moves to impose the IMF conditions on the poor masses.

JI Emir Sirajul Haq, he told the press conference at Mansoorah on Wednesday, would lead the march from Lahore to Islamabad.

Azeem demanded general elections instead of polls in two provinces, saying the government lost credibility to rule. The PDM and the PPP’s unity government, he said, was brought to power and if it continued, only elite would survive.

He also demanded release of the “Gwardar Rights Movement” leader Maulana Hidayatur Rahman and his colleagues. He said the march agenda included the protection of the rights of the people of Balochistan. He said the ECP and the provincial governments must complete the local government institution, allowing representatives of the people to exercise their legal powers.

Azeem said the judiciary failed to protect the rights of the weak in the country. He said the people in the government were getting clean chits against their past crimes and corruption and those who had been in power few months ago were going to prisons. The overall scenario, he said, exposed how the courts work in the country.

He warned the government against accepting the IMF agenda which was anti-poor and pro-elite. He said the country had not needed any loans but it required back in the country the wealth of the ruling elite which they had looted and stashed in foreign accounts and shell companies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023