KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has warned the government not to create hindrance in the JI’s sit-in against K-Electric scheduled to be held on Friday, April 7th.
“The administration will be responsible for the unrest and situation of the city, if the JI’s sit-in is interrupted,” he said while addressing a press briefing at the JI Karachi’s headquarters Idara Noor-e-Haq. He was briefing reporters in connection with a sit-in against the K-Electric at the company’s headquarter in Karachi.
He further warned the authorities: “Don’t misinterpret our peaceful stance as our weakness.”
The JI leader said that It would be a mistake on the part of the administration and the government if they believe that JI’s struggle could be diverted through arrests and other nefarious tactics.
Talking about the March 31st protest, Hafiz Naeem said that the government showed a barbaric behavior to refrain the party from holding a very peaceful protest as the JI office bearers had already assured the authorities that the sit-in would be peaceful and even the flow of traffic would not be interrupted during the sit-in.
“Despite our peaceful stance, police resorted to firing and used excessive force. Five JI workers received bullet injuries and two of them are still under treatment at a hospital,” he said and added that on the other hand police refused to file a First Information Report of what happened on March 31st.
Hafiz Naeem further asked Inspector General Sindh A. D. Khawaja to hold an inquiry into the matter and bring it on the record that who had ordered the policemen to open fire on the peaceful protestors.
In addition, he asked law enforcement agencies, particularly Rangers to play their due role in maintaining law and order and to provide protection to protesting citizens on April 7th.
Talking about the JI’s demands, Hafiz Naeem said that the party and the entire populace of the city want to get rid of load shedding and particularly when our total production capacity is more than the city’s consumption. Similarly, he added, tariff should decreased to logical level and the recent hike in several slabs of the tariff should be withdrawn immediately. We also want the KE to pay back due amount to citizens which the KE administration had received from citizens illegally.
Pointing out the issues of bank charges, meter rent and claw backs, he said that the entity will have to pay back all the money, it had received through various illegal tactics. He added that the KE had plundered billions of rupees.
The JI leader further said that owing to the past experiences of citizens with the power company, JI demands that a representative of Federal Ombudsman should be present in each service center of the company so as people could get relief on immediate basis. He said that a charter of demands will also be presented on the occasion.
