Religious scholars reject ‘Waqf Properties Act’

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has expressed his grave concerns over what he has called a systematic effort to damage the ideological foundations of the country after destroying the economy.

While addressing a convention of Ulema, scholars and administrators of the religious seminaries at Mansoora on Wednesday, Siraul Haq said the Jamaat-e-Islami has decided to make a strategy to counter the recently introduced ‘Waqf Properties Act’, enforcing stringent laws to control the seminaries. Reports said the religious scholars have also rejected the law as a conspiracy against the freedom of the seminaries and mosques that have so far been acting as the guardians of the Islamic ideology in the country. They also warned the government to repeal the laws or get ready to face protests.

Sirajul Haq said the secular’s lobbies had long been attacking the Islamic identity in the country but they expedited their agendas for the past few years. He demanded the government take the religious scholars and professionals on-board to prepare the national curriculum, saying that the secularisation of the curriculum would never be accepted. He also expressed concerns over the killing of five more people in Bannu’s Janikhel tribe in a clash between the locals and security forces on Wednesday evening, when the tribesmen wanted to go to Islamabad to record their protest. He said the locals had been protesting for more than a week for justice along with the body of their tribal chief.

The JI chief reminded that earlier three men were also killed despite the KP government had entered into an agreement with the tribe. He told the tribal people the clash erupted after the tribe men were not allowed to proceed to Islamabad for a peaceful protest. He demanded the government to provide justice to the protesting people and should address their lawful demands as soon as possible. He said it is so unfortunate that justice has never been in the reach of a common man in the country, though the country's progress completely depended on the establishment of rule of law and provision of justice to the common man.

Meanwhile, JI Naib Ameer Liaqat Baloch said the post-budget discussion in parliament was a time consuming gossip, as the budget is in the process of approval but the prices of oil, gas, flour, sugar and other essential commodities are still high. The postponement of negotiations with the IMF is a part of the government's strategy and sooner the budget is approved, the government would bow down again in front of the IMF. He said Imran Sarkar has no intention of working on the economic crisis to achieve self-reliance. Baloch said the government has made a program to make the Election Commission of Pakistan, a helpless body in the name of electoral reforms to steal elections on a permanent basis through an engineered system.