Ulema vow to oppose military courts

BANNU: Terming the 21st amendment as discriminatory, a number of administrators of seminaries and politicians belonging to religio-political parties Wednesday vowed to oppose the military courts.
Speaking at the Al-Markaz Islami seminary in Ghuriwala, administrators and scholars of seminaries from North Waziristan and Bannu asked the government to introduce another amendment in the Constitution for putting an end to the ‘discriminatory’ 21st amendment.
Former JUI-F MPAs Mufti Kifayatullah and Abdur Razaq Mujadadi, Maulana Nasim Ali Shah, Bannu district Khatib Mufti Abdul Ghani, Mufti Misbahuddin from Mir Ali in North Waziristan, and a number of other clerics spoke on the occasion.
They said the government wanted to use the tragic incident at the school in Peshawar onDecember 16 as a repeat of the 9/11 attacks on the US to launch an assault on seminaries in Pakistan. “We will not let the government target the Madaris on the directives of the West,” Mufti Kifayatullah declared in his speech.
The speakers criticised the 21st Amendment and argued that the government should not have targetted the seminaries. “Instead, the amendment should have covered all kind of terrorist acts, including the activities of Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM),” one of the speakers stressed.
The speakers claimed that BLA and MQM were carrying out attacks on the security forces, judges, ulema and common citizens but military courts were not constituted against them.
“We have been victimised through the flawed policies of two dictators. General Zia brainwashed some students of Madaris and used them in the Afghan jihad while General Musharraf declared Madaris as the hub of terrorism,” Mufti Misbahuddin recalled.
They noted that Ulema had supported Pakistan Army in all wars against the enemy but the government on the dictation of Western powers was amending the Constitution to end the positive role of Madaris in the society.
The speakers said the government had pointed out that 23 seminaries were receiving foreign funding but the sources of funding of NGOs had not been probed and disclosed.They asked the administrators of the Madaris to tighten security of their seminaries in the wake of the propaganda campaign against the Islamic schools and keep the record of teachers and students.
The Ulema dismissed the impression that the seminaries were against registration. They urged the government to remove the impediments related to registration of the seminaries.They also demanded introduction of similar laws against all militant organizations.They vowed to follow the example of Imran Khan and paralyse Islamabad if 22 amendments in the Constitution were not introduced to stop discrimination against the seminaries.