GUJRAT: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said the state is failing to fulfil its responsibilities, while elite capture has held society hostage and wealthy industrialists are exploiting the poor.
Addressing the first graduation ceremony of Alkhidmat Foundation’s Bano Qabil programme in Gujrat, Hafiz Naeem said Pakistan had an elite comprising bureaucrats and feudal landlords, who controlled agriculture, the economy and other sectors.
He regretted that Pakistan’s education system was not up to date, adding that more than 27 million children were currently out of school across the country. He said 11.8 million children were not attending school in Punjab alone, while 70 per cent of government schools in the province lacked washroom facilities.
The Jamaat-e-Islami chief claimed that 52 per cent of ninth-grade students in Punjab had failed their examinations, while the condition of schools in Sindh was even worse. He said Punjab’s development was being showcased only through advertisements, alleging that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had sold 11,000 schools, with a target of 25,000.
Hafiz Naeem said political parties were not addressing Pakistan’s real problems, adding that no party was taking to the streets over education and inflation. He said agriculture was being devastated and people were struggling, but nobody appeared concerned.
He further said even people with little or no income were being taxed, alleging that the poor and middle class were being exploited. He added that Pakistan lacked not only free education but also access to quality education, even at high costs.
