Banning religious seminaries is not acceptable: JUI

Political leader supports Karachi operation, says militant wings of parties behind unrest.

SUKKUR: Instead of rooting out the safe havens of terrorists, provincial authorities have put a ban on establishing new religious seminaries, said Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Sindh secretary-general Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro on Monday.

He called this decision highly condemnable but also intolerable. Soomro was addressing a press conference at Madressa Hamadia Manzil Gah in Sukkur, where he blamed the chief minister for giving in to ‘anti-Islamic Western allies’.

Some analysts have advised the government ban religious seminaries and convert them into schools and colleges, Soomro pointed out. Clearly unhappy with these articles, he urged the government make all the schools that have turned into ‘drawing rooms and stables of influential persons’ functional before it takes this step. He warned the government withdraw its announcement otherwise it will face a strong protest movement throughout the province. “Sindh was Babul-Islam and will always remain Babul-Islam,” he added.



As a reconciliatory measure, the JUI leader offered the government hand over all educational institutions and health facilities in Sindh to his party. “If we fail to deliver then we will quit politics,” he said. “We don’t demand more funds. Just give us the funds the government is presently allocating to both the sectors and we will bring revolutionary changes.”

If given the opportunity, Soomro said they will end ‘copy culture’ and teach English, Sindhi, Urdu and Arabic in the province.

Sindh Festival

Soomro was also unhappy with the Sindh Festival celebrated last month. “Women were made to dance in the name of Sindhi culture,” he pointed out. “Obscene dances are not our culture rather it is the culture of Western countries.” He felt that the government could have spent Rs1.75 billion on reviving closed schools and improving health facilities, instead of spending it on this absurd festival.

Law and order

Soomro admitted the law and order situation in Sindh made his party anxious as people are being picked up in broad daylight and no one knows if they were picked up by the bandits or intelligence agencies.

More than 10 years ago, a JUI worker Hafiz Khan Mohammad Chang was picked up from Faiz Ganj district in Khairpur and he is still missing, he said. Similarly last month, JUI’s Mehmood Bheri was kidnapped from Sukkur and the police have yet to find him. JUI Shikarpur press secretary Maulana Bakhatullah Pahore was kidnapped from Lakhi Ghulam Shah and is still missing, he added.

Soomro also welcomed the Karachi operation. Quoting a statement by the Rangers director-general, he said the militant wings of political parties are behind the unrest in the metropolis and not the Taliban. JUI is in favour of dialogue with the Taliban, he said, adding that war and operation cannot solve the purpose. He also encouraged talks with the Baloch, who are angry at the government and have gone into hiding in the mountains.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2014.