JI leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman. PHOTO: FILE
RAWALPINDI:
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Sunday condemned the Punjab Local Government Act as a “black law”, claiming that new legislation was designed to facilitate horse-trading and entrench elite control over power and resources.
Addressing participants in a JI sit-in at Liaquat Road against the Punjab Local Government Act, the party emir said state-sponsored advertising campaigns featuring the “king and queen” were funded by taxpayers’ money, while ordinary citizens continued to suffer from rising taxes and declining public services.
He asked the protesters if they were prepared to besiege the Punjab Assembly and announced that he would unveil what he called the “facade of development projects” over the next two days.
He also announced that a nationwide referendum would be held on 15 January.
Despite rainfall, Hafiz Naeem praised the participants for turning out, recalling that Jamaat-e-Islami had staged a 14-day sit-in last year and asked if they were ready to do it again.
He claimed that forces produced through “Form 47” had been installed in power by the establishment, and claimed that leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, had lost elections.
“If they are masters, let them produce the original forms,” he said, adding that those sitting in assemblies had not really won elections but had been imposed.
He said Pakistan would have to fight a long battle for constitutional supremacy, noting that both the PTI and PML-N governments had failed to hold local government elections for the past six years.
He scorned dynastic politics and said a handful of families, including the “Chaudhrys” and “waderas” in Punjab and the Zardari family in Sindh, wanted to retain power indefinitely and amass wealth through big projects and setbacks. He argued that bureaucracies should operate under elected local governments rather than concentrating authority in unelected hands, adding that a single CSS-qualified officer often dominated multiple administrative positions.
Referring to Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s statement that 26.2 million children were out of school, Hafiz Naeem said the figure was based on a three-year-old report that accused the government of outsourcing schools instead of correcting government mistakes.
He also criticized the outsourcing of basic health units in Punjab and claimed that services were being privatized while photographs of Maryam Nawaz were displayed. Punjab should be compared with its own potential rather than with Sindh, he added.
He further said that new taxes were imposed on the poor at a time when global petrol prices were at a five-year low and accused the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) itself of corruption. He called for structural reforms and said deputy commissioners should be subordinate to elected mayors.
He further said that Jamaat-e-Islami had approached the courts and a hearing was scheduled for the following day, though he lamented that the current legal system was not delivering justice.
