JUI-F chief vows to continue ‘jihad’ against govt

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman here Sunday vowed to continue ‘jihad’ against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government within the limits of the constitution.

Addressing the "Tahaffuz-e-Madaris Conference", he said the government had failed to deliver on all fronts.

The conference was attended by teachers and heads of religious seminaries from across the province.

“The PTI government has broken all previous records in terms of taking loans from foreign countries,” he said. “The economy is on the verge of collapse due to the wrong policies of the government,” he added.

He said the growth rate reflected in the 2018 budget was 6.5 percent, but currently it was even below one percent.

He recalled that the previous PTI-led provincial government had announced to provide honoraria to the prayer leaders of mosque, but did not know under which head the payment should be made. “I salute the brave religious leaders who refused to accept the honoraria despite their financial constraints,” Maulana Fazlur Rahman declared.

He said the government has backtracked on all its commitments. “The PTI leaders had claimed to provide jobs to 10 million youth but hundreds of thousands people have lost their jobs due to the poor and flawed policies of the government,” he said.

The JUI-F leader said every segment of the society was passing through the worst time. “The PTI government is running the country like the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit,” he said.

He condemned the government’s strategy on Kashmir. “The Kashmir cause has been weakened as the government is staging mere protests to gain sympathy of the masses,” he argued.

The Maulana said the US-led international establishment was bent upon closing down the madressas. “They termed the religious institutions as terrorist organisations and pointed fingers at their curriculum. The same US supported these seminaries and their curriculum in the name of ‘jihad’ in the 1980s,” he reminded.

He said that politics was not the job of Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan only. "They and the establishment should learn from religious leaders," he remarked.

He said if any agreement was made against the madressas it would be strongly resisted. “The speculations about the seminaries in the name of reforms were spread under foreign pressure. If the government tried to close the madaris, we would start teaching the kids under the open sky and trees,” he maintained.

He said the government should stop talking about modernising the religious education. “We are aware of the needs of modern times and we know how to update and improve our curriculum,” he maintained.

“The JUI-F view is that the curriculum was basically divided by the British rulers as religious education and contemporary education. The religious education was far more comprehensive and meaningful than the contemporary one,” he claimed.

The Maulana said the forefathers of the present religious leaders challenged the system and set up the Darul Uloom Deoband in 1866.

Speaking on the occasion, general secretary of JUI-F Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri expressed serious concern over the government policies about madressas. "It looks strange that we are holding a conference to protect religious schools in a country that came into being in the name of Islam. The JUI-F would stand firm behind seminaries to resist government designs and international agenda," he declared.

He also criticised the PTI government for what he called ruining the economy of the country and harming its ideological frontiers.

He urged the participants of the conference to equip themselves with education and save the ideological frontiers of the country.

A resolution adopted at the conference stressed the need for announcing fresh election in the wake of the unbearable price-hike. The resolution stated that government intervention in madressas and any move to change their curricula would not be tolerated. It added that no-objection certificate is being sought from madressas while cinemas have been given a free hand in the "state of Madina".