Ashrafi seeks Ulema’s help to resolve TLP issue

LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony and Middle East Affairs, and chairman Pakistan Ulema Council Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi has started contacting scholars, ulema and mashaikh to help resolve the current crisis in the country.

Ulema being the torch-bearers of message of love and peace should display flexibility, continue dialogue process and Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protestors should open the roads so that dialogue process should move in a positive direction, Hafiz Ashrafi told a press conference on Friday.

He warned that violence was not a solution to the problems, adding that any movement based on violence could not sustain. He said every Muslim was the guardian and protector of Namoos-e-Risalat-e- Muhammad (SAW) and the belief in the finality of the Prophethood. He said the TLP leadership should try to solve the impasse through negotiations with representatives of the government in the next 24 hours. Ashrafi said ulema, mashaikh and religious scholars across the country had been appealing that the blocked roads should be opened, negotiations be held and issues should be resolved through mutual understanding.

“Violence, roadblocks, vandalism, harming people, targeting personnel of the law enforcement agencies, targeting the police officials, blood that is being shed, whether it is of a party worker or of the police, is the loss of Pakistan,” he said. The government said that it would discuss the demands that had come up from the TLP and it was ready to accept some demands as well, he added.