Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq claimed on Sunday that Western ideals and culture were so materialistic that a man there would not even spend money to buy his girlfriend an ice cream.
“We don’t want the promotion of a culture in Pakistan where a couple won’t even spend Rs5 on each other for an ice cream,” he said at a clerics’ conference at Tehmash Khan Stadium in Peshawar.
The JI chief made the claim while narrating the story of a young American couple he had heard from another party leader.
Haq said the party leader, who had told him the story, on a recent trip to the US had seen the couple separately paying for their ice creams.
The JI chief also bashed the Western culture for its individual freedom and liberty.
Comparing societies, Haq said people in Western countries left their parents at old homes and met them only once a year but in Pakistan they lived as joint families.
Talking about Pakistan’s banking system, the JI leader said interests should be abolished.
“The country’s leadership isn’t serious about bringing an end to the interest system but our party will continue striving for its elimination” he added.
Criticising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for referring to ‘Bhagwan’ as God, Haq said it was “ideological terrorism” and the premiere’s remarks were meant to appease the West.
