January 11, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 26, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The federal minister for religious and minorities affairs, Dr.Mehmud Ahmed Ghazi, has hinted at banning religious extremists, sectarian groups and checking the organisations raising funds for jihad.

When asked to define the term ‘religious extremists’, Dr Ghazi said: “All those groups or individuals who were killing each other in the name of Islam by declaring others infidels and were sitting in judgments on others were religious extremists”.

He termed efforts for introducing a model syllabus in all madressahs of the country revolutionary which could transform the society into a moderate Islamic state. Dr.Ghazi dispelled the impression that the government was making any deliberate attempt to keep religious parties away from the country’s electoral process.

Referring to the struggle for freedom in the occupied Kashmir, the minister said: “It is purely an indigenous struggle to which Pakistan is providing moral and diplomatic support, but no one has the right to undertake jihadi activities in the name of Kashmir’s freedom”.

“Moral and material support to Kashmiri refugees is okay, but beyond that if some individuals are promoting activities against the stated policy of the government, they can not be condoned” ,he maintained.

He, however, claimed that there were no Pakistani organisations engaged in jihad across the border and if someone was raising funds for such an activity, he was not doing any good to the country.

Ghazi said the efforts of changing the centuries-old syllabus of the institutions was part of a long-term planning to improve the quality of life of Ulema.

The minister refuted the impression that the government was patronising only those Ulema who remained beneficiaries of every government in the past.