Sirajul Haq turns down surge in electricity tariff

PESHAWAR, July 15 (SABAH): Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq has rejected the increase in electricity tariff and demanded the government make public the IMF agreement.

Talking to different delegation here on Saturday, Sirajul Haq said the per unit price would touch Rs55 after inclusion of different taxes in electricity bills.

The rulers, he said, were bent upon sucking the blood of the poor masses instead of making small sacrifices of their own luxuries and protocols. The ruler of the poor country, he said, lived like kings, utilizing state resources and leaving nothing for the poor. The two percent elite, he said, captured 90 percent of the national wealth.

Amid the unprecedented financial crunch, he said, the number of prime minister’s federal cabinet was 85. Could a country caught in a worst debt trap afford this size of the cabinet, he questioned. He said the government had planned to collect Rs500 billion from the poor people with the recent increase in power tariff.

Haq said the PDM and the PPP had taken out the rallies and the long marches against inflation before coming into power. The 15 months rule of the 13 parties’ alliance, he said, broke all records of inflation but none of them raised any concern. He said the current government was the continuation of the PTI rule. There was no difference among the policies of the ruling parties, he said, adding the trio was failed to provide any relief to the masses. He added the status quo keepers could not put the country on right path even after remining in power for 100 years. The country and the people, he said, were paying the price of the bad governance of decades.

Sirajul Haq said the rule of the feudal lords and capitalists gave nothing to the people but miseries. He said only Islamic system could save the country and the Jamaat-e-Islami was the party which could enforce it if voted to power.