Staying adamant: JI’s Sirajul Haq defends party chief’s remarks

Says negotiations with Taliban still a possibility.

SWABI/ CHARSADDA: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Finance Sirajul Haq defended his party on Tuesday, saying Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Munawar Hasan has not taken any unconstitutional step.

Addressing an award ceremony at Government College, Charsadda, the minister maintained the US is against talks with the Taliban and does not want successful negotiations to take place. He added JI was willing to go to any length to halt Nato supplies.

Haq said he did not know why people were raising a hue and cry over Munawar Hasan’s statement when he was only speaking of peace and stopping drones attacks and Nato supplies. He said negotiations can still be held as the country is not short of people who can convince the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.



Meanwhile, addressing party workers in Swabi, JI provincial vice president Mushtaq Ahmad Khan alleged the US was responsible for the mayhem and chaos across the world, adding America had adopted “anti-Islamic policies.” He said people may raise questions about JI’s patriotism and service to Islam, but that they did not need anyone’s certificate.

Earlier, JI chief Munawar Hasan had called former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud a ‘martyr’ and said security forces were fighting America’s war.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th,2013.