‘Stop harassing clerics, identify those involved in terrorist activities’

LAHORE:

Seminary managements are not opposed to registration with the government. It is the government itself which is delaying the registration process, Ittehad Tanzimat Wafaq ul Madaris chairman Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman said on Sunday.

He was addressing the media after a meeting of the confederation of education boards of seminaries belonging to the five major Muslim schools of thought in the country. The heads of all five boards were present.

Rehman demanded that the government release the clerics arrested under the National Action Plan. He said instead of harassing clerics, the government should identify those involved in terrorist activities. “We have asked the government to provide us with the list of seminaries suspected of involvement in terrorist activities,” he said. He said talks between the confederation and the secretaries of the Ministries of Religious Affairs, Education and Interior Affairs were already underway in this regard. He said the government had been proceeding with a crackdown on clerics despite the confederation’s offer of assistance in implementation of the NAP. “Harassing clerics and banning the use of loud speakers at mosques will not solve anything,” he said. Rehman said clerics from all schools of thought had unanimously supported the 21st Constitutional Amendment despite their reservations on the establishment of the military courts and the association of terrorism only with religion. He said governments since Pervaiz Musharraf had failed to bring any evidence of seminaries’ involvement in terrorist activities.

Organisation of barelvi mosques established

A Tanzeemul Masajid Pakistan (organisation for mosques Pakistan) was set up by the Sunni Ittehad Council on Sunday. A press release stated that mosques affiliated with the Barelvi school of thought would be organised at the union council level. There is a separate Tanzeemul Masajid Pakistan for Deobandi mosques.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2015.