JAH lambastes enemies of Pak-Saudi ties

LAHORE
JAMIAT Ahle Hadith Pakistan (JAHP) President Senator Prof. Sajid Mir has warned some cabinet member of the malicious outbursts against country’s longest-trusted friend Saudi Arabia and said that it is part of enemies’ agenda to damage the bilateral relations and the national interests at a time when country badly needs the support to combat the worst crises of its history.
Sajid Mir was referring to accusations levelled by Federal Minister for Interprovincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada while addressing a seminar few days back that the extremist elements in Pakistan were being funded by Saudi money channelled to promote its orthodox school of thought and that Riyadh should stop sending money to seminaries for spreading its ideology.
Sajid Mir termed the anti-Saudi propaganda baseless saying Riyadh had never officially funded seminaries in Pakistan but some of them had been receiving aid from individual Saudi philanthropists for education purposes, which the kingdom had banned after 9-11. He argued that “critics of Saudi Arabia should have the moral courage to condemn Iran for sending both money and hateful literature to seminaries in Pakistan for promoting and enforcing its own school of thought”. He alleged that “the literature, coming from Iran, had been full of hate material and blasphemy of revered religious figures, something never done by any Saudi.”
Sajid Mir, whose party had been an old ally of ruling PML-N, said he would raise the issue with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif soon. Refraining from replying queries about the possible action against the minister concerned, Sajid Mir said his party was planning to hold seminars and meetings to apprise the countrymen about the propaganda and the conspiracy behind it. He said Pakistani nation had always held Saudi Arabia as spiritual centre of Islamic world because of being the custodian of the holy places, and had great love for its people and rulers. Besides, Riyadh is considered as the most trusted ally above all other friendly countries and it had always proved it all through the history by helping out Pakistan on Kashmir in the UN, terrorism and in all natural calamities and financial problems.
To a question, Sajid Mir said Pakistan should have friendly relations with all the countries, especially neighbours, but added that the country had never adopted independent foreign policy which had always been dependent on Washington. He said at present Pakistan’s security and solidarity was under serious threat from India more than any other country. He said though Iran had been a good friend yet for sometime the bilateral relations were facing coldness due to some border disputes and the global pressure on Pakistan. He hoped Pak-Iran relations would become normal soon.
To further counter the US bias towards India, Sajid Mir suggested that Islamabad should reinforce the existing cooperation with trusted allies like China, Saud Arabia and Turkey and expressed the hope that Iran should also rejoin these ranks. He said Obama’s visit would not create any major difference for Pakistan since US had always pursued its own interests.
He said the kind of US friendship that Delhi was vying to achieve had already been enjoyed and rejected by Pakistan because of not meeting US demands of waiving Kashmir issue, accepting Indian regional hegemony and completing subservience to its brand of counterterrorism agenda. He said Pakistan should work for having normal neighbourly relations with India, but it was time that Islamabad’s foreign policy should have been independent of Washington.
To a question about Hafiz Saeed, he said though he had some personal and political issues with the party of Hafiz Saeed yet he was opposed to handing over any Pakistani accused to any foreign country for trial.