Religious groups: Citizenship demanded for Karachi’s Rohingyas

Protests to be held across the province on September 22

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Jamaat-e-Islami chief and Milli Yakjehti Council Provincial President Mushtaq Ahmad has said that the Rohingiya Muslims residing in Karachi should be given Pakistani citizenship and other fundamental human rights.

Addressing a news conference after holding the provincial executive council meeting of the Milli Yakjehti Council, Ahmad who was flanked by chief of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (Noorani) Allama Syed Norul Hasnain Gilani said: "The Myanmar government is responsible for carrying out brutalities on Rohingya Muslims." He demanded that all such steps should be stopped immediately.



The alliance consists of around 25 religious parties and groups.

In the meeting of the council it was decided that protests will be held across the province on September 22 against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Mushtaq Ahmad said that international human rights bodies should intervene to resolve the Rohingya crisis. When asked about Rohingya Muslims residing in Karachi, he said that they should also be given citizenship.

“The council considers ‘Kalma Tayeeba’ as visa. If the Rohingyas living in Karachi want to get Pakistani citizenship, they should be facilitated in this regard,” Ahmad said.

About the silent role of Islamic countries, Ahmad said that they wondered if Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were helping victims of floods in the United States (US) then why were they not helping the Muslims suffering in Myanmar.

The council wished there could be separate United Nations, and separate alliance of the security forces of Islamic countries so that they could help the Muslims persecuted in several parts of the world, he said.



Regarding the alliance of religious parties in the next general elections, Ahmad said that morally the religious parties are always in alliance for the cause of Islam. “There will not be any issue in the political alliance of the religious parties at any stage for the upcoming general elections.”

Ahmad said that heightened security should be provided during the month of Muharram to the processions and clerics should not be banned from delivering lectures. He said that the month of Muharram was respectable for all the Muslims.