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PESHAWAR, Oct 20: Vice President of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and chief of Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed on Sunday promised equal job opportunities for women, new laws on violence against women and a ban on honour killings, which he described as un-Islamic.
“We will give women honour, respect and dignity, and bring laws to end discriminatory laws,” Qazi Hussain Ahmad told a women convention here.
“We will abolish the un-Islamic practice of honour killings,” he said.
Officials of Jamaat-i-Islami said the convention was called to dispel worries that the MMA would clamp down Taliban-style on women if it came to power.
Allaying the fears as propaganda, Qazi Hussain said the “massive participation at the rally today is proof that both men and women want Islam in this country.”
“We will treat women with respect, provide them education and training and there will be no job restriction on women.”
Qazi vowed the MMA would introduce an Islamic order in the country under which men and women will enjoy equal rights.
He said the alliance plans to set up educational institutions exclusively for women, including universities and vocational training centres.
Women will receive both religious and secular education and female experts in teaching, medicine and other fields would be offered “a conducive atmosphere to work in dignity.”
“Laws will be passed against sexual harassment of women and special centres will be established for widows and destitute,” he said.
“Islam has given women more rights than any other religion,” he said, adding that “it allows woman to marry a person of her choice.”
He also declared as “wrong” a ban tribesmen had clamped on women’s right to vote during the general elections, saying that MMA would abolish all unfair practices.
Several provincial and central leaders of the MMA’s women’s wing also addressed the convention, held to hail the alliance’s election gains.—AFP
TALKS WITH INDIA: Later, talking to newsmen Qazi Hussain Ahmad asked the Indian government to adopt a pragmatic approach towards the core issue of Kashmir, Bureau adds.
Qazi Hussain said his party would never oppose meaningful dialogues with New Delhi. He, however, called upon the Indian government to accept the occupied state as a disputed territory between the two countries before taking up other issue with Islamabad.
He said the religious parties would not oppose Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s proposed visit to Islamabad in January next to attend the Saarc summit.
Asked why Jamaat-i-Islami strongly agitated when Mr Vajpayee visited Lahore in 1999, he said protest was against the controversial statements by the senior Indian officials and not against the Vajpayee’s visit.
He said: “We will not oppose if someone comes for meaningful talks. Earlier, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had also come to Islamabad but the JI did not protest against his visit.”
He said Mr Vajpayee should demonstrate flexibility on Kashmir issue, otherwise talks would not bear any fruitful results. The JI chief castigated the statement of the Afghan foreign office over the victory of MMA in the general election. He said that he did not consider the transitional government in Kabul a legitimate and representative government of the people of Afghanistan.
“The US occupational forces are ruling Kabul, contrary to the wishes of Afghans,” he remarked.
To a question, he said the MMA was ready to form a coalition government at the centre, for which the alliance had nominated Maulana Fazlur Rehman as a consensus candidate for the office of the prime minister.
