DIR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Sunday alleged that the capitalist class contributed only Rs10 to Rs12 billion in taxes annually despite “looting the country,” while Rs650 billion was collected from salaried individuals and Rs500 billion from the poor.
He was addressing the inaugural gathering of the “Badl Do Nizam” campaign at Dir Stadium.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the movement had been launched from the mountains of Dir and would spread across the country, from the deserts of Balochistan to the plains of Punjab and the port city of Karachi.
Criticising successive governments, he said they had taken heavy loans and shifted the burden onto the public. “People are already reeling under the effects of inflation even before the war. Loans are taken, but taxes are collected from the poor,” he said.
He thanked the public for their participation in the gathering and urged greater involvement of women in future events. The JI chief also criticised the provincial government, saying the proposed Chakdara-Dir-Chitral Motorway project had “disappeared.” He alleged that corruption worth billions of rupees was taking place in the province. Highlighting the state of education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said 2.5 million children in the province were out of school.
He said Jamaat-e-Islami planned to introduce a system of free education and was working on housing projects for low-income groups across the country. “Around 500,000 houses are being built for the poor, of which 200,000 have been completed,” he said. He announced that 2,000 committees would be formed in Upper Dir as part of the “Badl Do Nizam” movement.
