March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 10: The district government has constituted four committees, comprising members of the district peace committee, to visit sensitive areas during Muharram and promote sectarian harmony, provincial minister for law and local bodies Raja Basharat said on Monday.

Speaking at a meeting of clerics and religious scholars, he said law enforcement agencies had identified 93 places as highly sensitive during Muharram and chalked out a plan for maintaining security. These places include Imambargahs, mosques, seminaries and houses of prominent religious leaders.

The Punjab government plans to increase the purview of Ittehad Bain-ul-Muslimeen Committee rather than limiting it to Muharram only, the minister said.

The committee, he said, would now meet every three months for promoting religious harmony. The government will regularly consult the members of the committee for establishing longlasting peace and rooting out the menace of sectarianism, he added.

Mr Basharat said with the revival of democracy, the public representatives, too, had got a chance to work towards ending sectarianism.

He urged the political parties and religious scholars to keep political and other issues aside during the Majalis and processions of Muharram for the sanctity of the holy month.

The government is giving maximum liberty to the political parties to express their point of view, and will continue with this policy.

The minister said it was the responsibility of both the opposition and the government to protect the nascent democracy.