Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday that his party stood for a parliamentary and political path to the resolution of issues and considered it wrong to resort to armed struggle. “We believe in parliamentary and political struggle and are in favour of change through the ballot system, so we openly criticise [terrorist acts], the reaction of which is deteriorating conditions in the country,” said Rehman.
Speaking at a conference of clerics at the party’s provincial secretariat in Peshawar, Rehman said the country was passing through the most crucial phase in its history, and the government should dispose of the policies of former governments and implement the resolutions of parliament. He said United States drone attacks in the tribal areas were violating the sovereignty of the country, as parliament had demanded an end to the attacks in its joint resolution.
He said even “bearded and turbaned” people were feeling insecure and religious groups were directly affected by the recent spate of violence, while terrorist attacks were being linked to madrassas. He said that the attack on PNS Mehran naval aviation base was a mystery that had to be unravelled, adding that the US and its allies aimed to isolate the Pakistani military with such acts by signalling to the world that Pakistan’s nuclear assets were in jeopardy.
The JUI-F chief said the US and its allies were taking possession of the resources of Muslim countries by force, and were also focused on destroying madrassas and discrediting religious scholars as a blow to Islamic culture and civilisation. Rehman said his party should not be taken lightly because it had a national role to play, adding that internal unity would be hard to achieve if the JUI-F was ignored on the political landscape.
He said that under the leadership of the US, “imperialist powers” had pushed the Muslim nation into a corner and the international community was given the impression that madrassas were the “fountain pens of terrorism”, which led the world to erroneously believe that mosques, religious schools and the Islamic way of life were a threat.
He said that the basic cause of worsening law and order in the country was the policies adopted by former president Pervez Musharraf. JUI-F Central Secretary General Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Provincial Chief Amanullah, Peshawar District Chief Qari Rafiq Shah and other office-bearers of the party were also present on the occasion.
