All foreign loans of the country could be cleared by minimizing corruption: Siraj ul Haq

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that if corruption was reduced by  forty per cent only, all foreign loans of the country could be cleared and the development budget could be doubled. He was talking to the media after presiding over a high level meeting of the JI at Islamabad on Monday.

Sirajul Haq said the JI would move a Bill against corruption in the National Assembly. He also announced a Train March from Karachi to Khyber on May 23 besides beside public meetings at Bajaur, Kohat and Chitral in connection with JI’s Corruption Free Pakistan campaign.

The JI chief said that a few families had plundered the country’s wealth on the pattern of the East India Company, by abusing their official position. Corrupt elite were controlling the country’s politics and democratic set up. These people had set up posh colonies for themselves with all facilities whereas 95 per cent of the population was without clean drinking water, electricity, basic education and health facilities.

Sirajul Haq said that at a time when children were dying in Thar due to hunger and heat, Rs One billion were spent from the public exchequer on a political function at Larkana. He said that had this money been spent on Thar, the deaths in Thar desert would not become international news.

He said the JI had launched its campaign against corruption long before the Panama leaks and this campaign was not a political slogan nor aimed at victimization.  It also did not mean accountability of the Prime Minister and his family alone but of all those whose names had appeared in the Panama Leaks.

Sirajul Haq stressed upon the NAB to abolish the plea bargain system and go for full recovery from the plunderers. He said that Pakistan and corruption could not co-exist.

He said that the plunderers belonged to the same club and changed parties and banners from time to time. These people had been in power during political rule as also under the martial law and continued to loot the masses.

He however said that the constitution and democratic set up should not be affected under the cover of accountability. He said that if the political parties began cleansing in their own ranks, they won’t find any candidates for the next elections.