‘Biased media’: Fazl says anger over Malala overshadows Aafia’s plight

JUI-F chief says international agenda behind attack on child activist.

PESHAWAR:

An “international agenda” is behind the attack on Malala Yousafzai, according to chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The Maulana berated the media and security establishment on Saturday “for making a hue and cry over the attack”.

Speaking to journalists in Peshawar, the Maulana said the media, security establishment and international community remained silent when an American soldier shot Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui.

In the same breath, however, he termed the attack on Malala as unjustified – while adding that no one should be allowed to politicise this issue.

Continuing the comparison with Malala, Fazl said that Aafia and those children who were killed in attacks on seminaries were torchbearers for education.

The JUI-F chief said Pakistan, its economy, its parliament and defence and legislature were under international pressure and unless the country is freed from these traps, it could not prosper. He also accused the US of terrorism, and playing victim at the same time.

“America is committing terrorism and has named it a war against terror, which is very sad,” Fazl said. “We care about those teenage students who were killed when their madrass was bombed,” he added. He was referring to the 2006 alleged drone strike on an Islamic seminary in Bajaur that killed dozens of pupils.

The Maulana said that NGO-sponsored laws were being introduced in parliament but the recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology (IIC) were never taken up by the legislature. He added that while he admitted the Taliban were committing wrong acts, but that all excesses should be treated in the same manner. He also called for putting an end to corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2012.