Prosperity a dream without breaking IMF hold, JI

LAHORE,  The Jamaat e Islami chief, Syed Mnawar Hasan, has said that as long as the IMF and the World Bank held the steering of the country’s economy, the goal of development and prosperity could not be achieved.
      In a statement here on Sunday, he said that the State Bank’s latest report was an eye opener and if the government did not tide over the electricity crisis, price hike and foreign loans, the country’s economy could reach a critical stage.
      He said the rulers were passing on the burden of their luxuries to the masses and according to the State Bank report, prices had already risen to an alarming level and would rise further in future as there was no indication of a price fall.
      He said the rulers’ conduct was dangerous both for the rulers and the country. The government was raising POL and electricity prices every moth and had turned senseless about the public worries and protest, he said.
      Challenging the official figure of 6,000 megawatt electricity short fall, he said this shortfall was artificial as the government was intentionally deepening the power crisis by denying payments to the electricity producing companies.
      He said, the industrial wheel all over the country had been stopped, agriculture was on the verge of destruction and there was a serious threat of shortage of essential items.
      At the top of this, he said, was the statement by the Water ad Power Minister Naveed Qamar about a further 2 per cent raise in the electricity tariff from the next month which was sprinkling salt on the wounds of the people.
      The JI chief expressed concern over the Minister’s disclosure that even the Presidency and the Prime Minister House were on the list of WAPDA defaulters.
He said that several government institutions in Sindh were stealing electricity and the burden of this theft was passed on to the people who regularly paid their bills.
      The State Bank, he said, had correctly advised the government to cut down dependence on foreign loans. He said the loans acquired by the government during the last  three years were a record and no body knew where this amount was being spent as neither any new dam was being built nor any new major project had been taken in hand.
This simply implied that the money was being transferred to the rulers personal bank  accounts.
  Syed Munawar Hasan said that the country had already suffered to the tune of 43 billion dollars in the US anti terror war which was actually war against the Muslims as against which we had received only 20 billion dollars conditional aid. Therefore, it was essential to get rid of this war.