JI condemns MFN status to India

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Munawar Hasan expressed concern over the government’s plan to privatise the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in a statement released on Wednesday. He said that the government was bent upon liquidating WAPDA, alleging that it was a conspiracy to justify the import of electricity from India, although the country’s power generation companies had the capacity to generate 20,000 megawatts of power. The JI chief said that WAPDA’s privatisation would not only lead to further increase in power tariff but also massive unemployment. Munawar alleged that there had been a corruption of Rs 50 billion in the RPP, adding that profit-making national institutions such as Pakistan Railways, Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Steel Mills had been destroyed due to government’s corruption. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said that the federal cabinet’s decision of giving the Most Favoured Nation status to India and expanding trade ties with it would undermine the country’s solidarity besides ruining its economy. In his reaction to the cabinet decision, the JI leader said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had deceived the political parties and the nation once again. He said the cabinet decision was in conflict with the unanimous resolution of the All-Parties Conference (APC) and was bound to create more hurdles in the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He said, the government had been holding APCs and promising review of the foreign and internal policies but it was never sincere in the implementation of the APC decisions. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Punjab ameer Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar criticised the expenditure of Rs one billion on 31 sessions of Provincial Assembly from April 2009 till date.