Rulers attitude responsible for spread of Daish: Siraj

ISLAMABAD: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Sirajul Haq has linked the spread of Daish phenomenon in Pakistan with the exploitation of masses at the hands of the ruling class.
“If the ruling elite start giving rights to the commoners, this phenomenon won’t get roots in the country,” Siraj said in an exclusive interaction with The News. “Initially, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared that Daish was not present in Pakistan but later we came to know through the media about its presence. They had formed their organisational structure in Fata,” the JI chief said.
In a truly democratic country, he explained, there is no space for any guerrilla or militant political party. “In the case of Pakistan, it depends on the ruling elite and how does it react to the demands of justice and rights of the commoners,” Siraj noted.
Siraj is the only chief of a mainstream political party who lives in a five-marla house in Peshawar on Rs15,000 monthly rent along with his wife, three sons and four daughters. He has no private business and his only source of income is salary that he draws as member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
Although, the JI is showing signs of improvement under his leadership, Siraj faces a serious challenge from al-Qaeda ideology which has many takers in his party. Siraj, however, is dismissive of the impression that this global terror network has ever posed a challenge to his party. “It was not and is not a challenge,” Siraj insisted when his attention was drawn towards the cases indicating that the JI affiliates either joined al-Qaeda or gave shelter to its leadership.
He questioned even the existence of al-Qaeda, arguing that we know about this organisation only through the media. He denied having any meeting with Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Siraj also explained his position over his picture with Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad, the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader. It was first shown to the media in an ISPR briefing in 2009 and later during in-camera session of the Parliament by the military authorities soon after the May 2, 2011 incident of US operation in Abbottabad.
The JI chief recalled that his picture was taken during a funeral prayer which he was leading in Bajaur following a drone attack on a seminary that killed 83 innocent children right in the centre of the town. He said that he never knew Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad. He said he was there only to mourn the killing of innocent children. He said he gathered their bodies and led funeral prayer as requested by the elders of the area. Siraj said that he was disappointed when he first heard that his picture was shown by the military authorities in the in-camera session tagging him with the militants.
Siraj said that there were also some pictures showing militants being garlanded by the military officials, an oblique reference to a photograph of corps commander Peshawar with Nek Muhammad. “Did that indicate their friendship,” he asked. “While the establishment kept showing my picture with militants, none of them bothered to verify from me,” he said.
The critics of the JI think that it indirectly promotes militancy or violence and for this they often give example of the statements of Syed Munawwar Hassan, ex-chief of the JI, who was replaced by Siraj. Siraj’s opinion is different than his predecessor. “Our party constitution is very clear that we want to bring Islamic revolution only through democratic means, we don’t believe in violence,” he said.
The JI chief said they are as patriotic as anyone else in the country. He said that still the JI leaders are being hanged in Dhaka, Bangladesh for their love for Pakistan. He shared that he was all set to attend the funeral of Professor Ghulam Azam in Dhaka who was hanged there but his JI fellows in Bangladesh advised him not to go there as the situation was not good over there. He said that he had contacted Sartaj Aziz, National Security Adviser to the PM, and Raja Zafarul Haq, Leader of the House in the Senate, to send a delegation to Bangladesh for the funeral of Professor Ghulam Azam and Mullah Abdul Qadir.
Siraj, who was born in village Miskini, district Dir of KP, says that Afghans are resisting a foreign invasion and this is their right. When asked about his first visit to Afghanistan, he said it was in 1981 to help the Afghan brethren for giving them bed sheets, crockery and other commodities. When asked if he waged jihad in Afghanistan against the Russian forces, he avoided giving a direct answer and said, “What fight I could wage, I only helped my brothers.” He said that if today Pakistan did not turn into Iraq or Southern Sudan, one reason behind that is the resistance of the Afghans against the Nato forces in Afghanistan.
“This is our obligation to oppose the Nato and the foreign invaders in our neighbouring Afghanistan,” he said. “The JI never discussed in any of its shura meetings that it should fight in Afghanistan, as announcement of waging jihad is the jurisdiction of a government,” he added.
Talking about Kashmir, he said that government should support the last man in Indian Occupied Kashmir.Siraj has won respect among the top politicians of the country not only for his role as “mediator” between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led federal government and Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) but also as the one who objectively criticised the idea of forming military courts in the country.
He said that during the 129-day sit-in in front of the Parliament, he played his role only to save the Constitution and the Parliament.Siraj, son of a seminary (madrassa) teacher, inherited Deobandi ideology from his father Maulana Ahsanul Haq who was alumni of Darul Uloom Deoband from India and kept teaching the seminary students for 60 years in KP. He shared that from primary to metric he changed almost 10 schools.
When asked to comment on Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP, Siraj said the JI is the only Islamist and democratic party in Pakistan and the rest are gatherings of elite under the flags of different political parties. Siraj said he once told Asif Zardari that the PPP is actually a religious party. He said that during one of his meetings with Zardari, he had pointed out that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, ex-PM Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and PPPP president Makhdoom Amin Faheem come from religious families.
When asked to comment on PM Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, he said he won’t be doing justice by commenting on anyone of them as he is a mediator between the two. Talking about the military courts, he recalled that following the December 16, 2014 school massacre, in a meeting presided by the prime minister, almost all the parties had their reservations on the establishment of military courts, but later parties like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) got immunity and changed their stance.
When asked if the ISI was involved in politics or not, he said, “It should not take part in the politics.” However, he added that there was no democracy within the political parties. He suggested that the Election Commission should oversee the party elections of each political party for bringing true democracy in the country.
Siraj said he was not satisfied with the performance of the KP government but he and his party members were trying to play a role for the welfare of the people. Talking about the MQM’s criticism on the JI, he said that a Joint Investigation Team from different law enforcement agencies has presented a report in the court about the involvement of the MQM in the Baldia Town killings. He said the MQM’s allegations on his party’s links with Daish or al-Qaeda are merely allegations but the JIT report is not allegation, rather it is the report of the institutions. He added that now it is the duty of the government to act on the report.