Siraj ul Haq leads Rickshaw rally in Lahore

Lahore:  Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Sirajul Haq, has said that the elimination of poverty and exploitative socio-economic system was imperative for uprooting terrorism.

Addressing a big Awami Huqooq (public rights) rally organized by the Awami rickshaw Union in the city on Sunday, he said that the people were committing suicide due to poverty while those responsible for their look-after were amassing wealth with both hands.

The common worker and labourer of the country is busy in the uplift of the country, the rulers are busy in plunder of the public money, he remarked.

The JI chief also travelled in a rickshaw for some distance and even drove the vehicle as a show of solidarity with the drivers’ community. The rally began at the Nasir Bagh and turned into a public meeting at the Faisal chowk.  Hundreds of rickshaws and motor cycle riders joined the rally.

Sirajul Haq said that the plunderers ruling the country were transferring the wealth earned by the labourers to their personal accounts in banks abroad. The elite class was least worried about the common man’s problems. However, these people always reached the corridors of powers by changing faces and parties. The ruling clique even deposited the heavy amounts of IMF and World Bank loans received in the name of the poor, in their own accounts with the result that while the country’s economy did not improve, every born Pakistani was under debt of Rs. 80,000.

Giving an instance of the injustice and exploitation going on in the society, Sirajul Haq said that a  traffic sergeant would challan a poor rickshaw driver for no fault but would salute a VIP even on violation of traffic signal. Such a system could not continue any more, he said.

He said that the so called elected representatives visited the people only at the time of elections but afterwards abandoned them for five years. None of the ministers or advisors would speak on the problems of the poor man in the assembly.

The JI chief said that as unless and until the poor and the workers elected candidates from their own class, their fate would not improve. He said that the JI was a party of the common workers and labourers, as he himself was the son of a labourer, and it would protect the rights and interests of the common man.

Sirajul Haq said that at the JI Ijtema held at the Minar e Pakistan last month, he had announced a people’s agenda which provided solution to the problems of 180 million people of the country. He urged the people to join the JI for building an Islamic and prosperous Pakistan. He reiterated that the Islamic government in the country would provide subsidy on five basic food items including atta, cooking oil, sugar, tea and rice to people with low earnings. Besides, free treatment would be provided to the patients suffering from major diseases including those of heart, liver, kidney and cancer.  The government would introduce a uniform education system in the country to ensure quality education for the poor children, he added.

The JI chief demanded that the Pak-ran gas pipeline project be completed to overcome the gas shortage. He said the project had been sabotaged under US pressure as the US did not want economic development in the country.

JI Punjab chief Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, in his address to the rally, demanded an end to   police excesses against the rickshaw drivers, and urged the Punjab Chief Minister to take notice of the matter.