JUI-F general secretary invites Taliban to join party

Says Islam’s revered beliefs cannot be made controversial

PESHAWAR: Senate Deputy Chairman and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) General Secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has invited the Taliban to join his party.

“We invite them [the Taliban] to join JUI-F and achieve their objectives with the help of a peaceful and political struggle,” he said at news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday.

Haideri said that while Islam teaches peace, for the past 10 years, people associated with Islam are being called terrorists and Islamic teachings are being called extremism.



“Islam’s revered beliefs cannot be made controversial. It clearly states that the killing of one person means the murder of all humanity,” said Haideri.

According to the JUI-F leader, the objective of the Aalmi Ijtima, a conference celebrating the centenary of the party’s founding, is to show the world that there is no space for extremism in Islam. The three-day conference in Azakhel, Nowshera will begin Thursday.

Around 300,000 people are expected to attend the gathering and all arrangements have been finalised. Haideri further said that delegations from Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman have already arrived while those from India, South Africa and Nepal will reach soon.

Women were not invited to the conference because a women’s ijtima was held recently, he claimed.



The Senate deputy secretary further said the objectives behind the creation of Pakistan had been sidelined and the party will decide the course of its future politics at the huddle.

He vowed to introduce a moral culture in the country saying the current political environment has become based on everyone levelling allegations against the other.

Haideri added Sheikh Saleh Mohammad Ibrahim, the imam of the Grand Mosque of Makkah, will also be attending the gathering.