Congregation ends: JI chief cautions India against ‘warmongering’
Sirajul Haq also advises US to stop interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs
LAHORE:
While wrapping up a three-day Ijtemah (congregation) of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the chief of the politico-religious party, Sirajul Haq, on Sunday counseled the United States against interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and cautioned India to stop its ‘warmongering’.
“The Indian leadership should use their resources to alleviate poverty and hunger from their country instead of hurling threats at Pakistan,” Haq told tens of thousands of JI workers and supporters at Minar-e-Pakistan.
“If [Narendra] Modi wants war with Pakistan, he should be mindful that this nation could repeat the history of Badr and Hunain,” he said referring to the battlefield victories of Muslims in the early Islamic history. “And if the Indian rulers think that India is a big country, then they should also mind that big countries suffer big losses,” he added.
The Jamaat chief also hit out at Pakistani rulers, saying that they would have to decide whether they were the slaves of US President Barack Obama or of the prophet of Islam (PBUH) and choose between Washington and Makkah.
The ruling elite has been playing to tunes of Washington for the last 67 years, he said, adding that the ‘hypocrisy of rulers’ could not continue any more. “If you love the American culture, you should leave this country and spare this nation. The tyrant class and Pakistan cannot go together,” he added.
The Jamaat leader said the present system was based on tyranny, injustice and exploitation because of which the poor were forced to commit suicides while the rulers were looting and plundering national wealth and building palaces in and outside the country.
He said hundreds of children have died in Tharparkar, Sindh, due to hunger and poverty. “This is because of the corruption of the ruling elite,” he said, adding that Rs1,500 billion were lost to corruption in the country annually.
He cited the example of India, where the state chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, was convicted of corruption, heavily fined and sent behind bars. “Conversely, in Pakistan, the corrupt go scot-free. Even the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) absolves the corrupt people after recovering only one-tenth of the plundered money,” he said.
The 1973 Constitution clearly states that Islam will be the state religion and all its laws will have to be in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah, he said, adding that a Federal Shariat Court was also set up to ensure that. “However, the laws of the country remain un-Islamic as our economy is still interest-based,” he said.
Haq said that soon after the independence, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had written to JI founder Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi that he had succeeded in creating a state and the latter (Maulana) should build a mosque on it. “The JI has decided to resume this effort. And it will help the nation rise above the differences of sects and factions and follow the dream of the Quaid,” he added.
Haq also repeated the main items of his ‘people’s agenda’ for building Pakistan into an Islamic, welfare state. “I will announce the line of action for achieving this agenda at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi, on December 25,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.
While wrapping up a three-day Ijtemah (congregation) of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the chief of the politico-religious party, Sirajul Haq, on Sunday counseled the United States against interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and cautioned India to stop its ‘warmongering’.
“The Indian leadership should use their resources to alleviate poverty and hunger from their country instead of hurling threats at Pakistan,” Haq told tens of thousands of JI workers and supporters at Minar-e-Pakistan.
“If [Narendra] Modi wants war with Pakistan, he should be mindful that this nation could repeat the history of Badr and Hunain,” he said referring to the battlefield victories of Muslims in the early Islamic history. “And if the Indian rulers think that India is a big country, then they should also mind that big countries suffer big losses,” he added.
The Jamaat chief also hit out at Pakistani rulers, saying that they would have to decide whether they were the slaves of US President Barack Obama or of the prophet of Islam (PBUH) and choose between Washington and Makkah.
The ruling elite has been playing to tunes of Washington for the last 67 years, he said, adding that the ‘hypocrisy of rulers’ could not continue any more. “If you love the American culture, you should leave this country and spare this nation. The tyrant class and Pakistan cannot go together,” he added.
The Jamaat leader said the present system was based on tyranny, injustice and exploitation because of which the poor were forced to commit suicides while the rulers were looting and plundering national wealth and building palaces in and outside the country.
He said hundreds of children have died in Tharparkar, Sindh, due to hunger and poverty. “This is because of the corruption of the ruling elite,” he said, adding that Rs1,500 billion were lost to corruption in the country annually.
He cited the example of India, where the state chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, was convicted of corruption, heavily fined and sent behind bars. “Conversely, in Pakistan, the corrupt go scot-free. Even the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) absolves the corrupt people after recovering only one-tenth of the plundered money,” he said.
The 1973 Constitution clearly states that Islam will be the state religion and all its laws will have to be in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah, he said, adding that a Federal Shariat Court was also set up to ensure that. “However, the laws of the country remain un-Islamic as our economy is still interest-based,” he said.
Haq said that soon after the independence, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had written to JI founder Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi that he had succeeded in creating a state and the latter (Maulana) should build a mosque on it. “The JI has decided to resume this effort. And it will help the nation rise above the differences of sects and factions and follow the dream of the Quaid,” he added.
Haq also repeated the main items of his ‘people’s agenda’ for building Pakistan into an Islamic, welfare state. “I will announce the line of action for achieving this agenda at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi, on December 25,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.