A large number of students and teachers from across the city participated in the Jamaat-e-Islami’s sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly on Thursday against the recently passed controversial Local Government Law.
Representatives from various labor unions, lawyers’ fraternity and other organizations also participated in the sit-in on the seventh day. Delegations from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and interior areas of Sindh also showed up to join the protest.
Addressing the participants, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said that the students were the future of the nation. “The Sindh government has ruined all departments, including education and health in the province.”
Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said that the corrupt practices by the provincial government compelled the masses to approach private educational institutions while bearing extraordinary financial burdens. He announced that the JI would continue its struggle against the Sindh government, and JI central chief Sirajul Haq would announce the next course of action today (Friday).
Talking about the health sector, he said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah always claimed to have provided the best health facilities across the province. He asked the Chief Minister why people from interior Sindh were rushing to Karachi for medical treatment.
PPP ministers accused the JI for following the MQM’s footprints, but they need to know that the JI has developed the city, not ruined it by plundering its resources and bloodshed.” Rehman said the scope of the protest drive against the black local government law would be extended to Thatta, Badin and other cities of the province.
A day earlier, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman had said that the ministers belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party were issuing misleading statements to cover up their corruption.
“Those who accuse the JI of seeding hatred and ethnic-based politics need to know that the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have not spared any slot for this nefarious type of politics in the political arena of Karachi.”
Rehman had said the JI had staged protests for the people belonging to all areas of the country. “Karachi is called Mini-Pakistan” because people from all ethnic backgrounds live in this city. The PPP should withdraw the law if it is serious and sincere about being non-political.
