CHITRAL: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has said that the perpetual power of the ruling elite should come to an end, and it is high time the people closed the doors of power on the ‘usurpers’. Addressing a rally at the polo ground here on Wednesday, he alleged that the successive governments had been the stooges of a few developed countries, including the US, and they always cared for their “masters”. He said that the landlords in the country paid income tax amounting to only Rs4 billion a year, while salaried class paid over Rs500 billion per annum. Hafiz Naeem came down hard on the government for the inflated electricity bills of electricity, and also announced to hold a nation-wide “referendum” on Oct 23 to ascertain the views of the public whether to continue paying power bills or not. Naeem says ‘perpetual power’ of ruling elite should come to an end “Based on the response of the majority of the people, JI will chalk out a strategy, and people won’t pay bills till the termination of the agreement with the Independent Power Producers,” he said. Hafiz Naeem said Jamaat was in favour of peaceful protests, avoiding armed and violent clashes with the state forces, and would hold talks with the government despite knowing the fact that “it is the product of Form 47 because we want democracy even in its weakest form”. He warned the ruling elite of facing people’s wrath if it didn’t stop “pandering to their foreign rulers” and continued to make life a “hell” for them. “In Bangladesh, the fleeing prime minister did manage to get airlifted out of the country, but in Pakistan the rulers will not be able to get such a chance,” he warned, adding that the rulers ‘should act before it was too late’. The JI leader also criticised the rulers of Islamic countries for their alleged silence over the issue of Palestine, where Israel has massacred more than 41,000 people during the last one year, not sparing even infants. Hafiz Naeem said that if a military alliance of the type of Nato was forged by the 40 Islamic countries, then no one would dare perpetuate such atrocities on Muslims as in Gaza, Kashmir and other countries. He asked the people of Pakistan to express their solidarity with the people of Palestine at 12 noon on Oct 7 and send a message to the world that the people in Gaza were not alone. Provincial JI emir Prof Mohammad Ibrahim, Lower Chitral emir Maulana Jamshed, former MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and former district nazim Maghfirat Shah also spoke on the occasion.