LAHORE, Dec 5: Federal Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq says the forward bloc has no roots in the party as everyone accepts the leadership of Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. He was talking to reporters at the launch of a book here on Monday.

“Even if anyone has some problem he/she should discuss it with the party president so that it is taken care of,” he said.

The people in the forward bloc met him daily and exchanged pleasantries as they had never been foes but friends and if they had some genuine problems the same should be resolved, he added.

The religious seminaries, the minister said, had neither any political agenda nor they had ever created trouble for the government and even foreign diplomats, after visiting these schools, were of the firm opinion that the institutions were really serving the country.

He said these were serving society by teaching about 1.5 million students from mostly humble background families and meeting their expenses from donations.

“Their budget is around Rs27 billion and not a single penny is contributed by the government.”

He said the government was considering to form a separate board to issue certificates on the pattern of Aga Khan Board for students of the religious schools which were producing self-employed scholars.

Ijaz said so far about 6,750 seminaries out of 11,500 had been registered with the government and the rest would follow suit in a couple of days.

He said the deadline for registration might be extended from Dec 31, 2005 to Jan 15, 2006 to facilitate the seminaries as promulgation of the amended ordinance had been delayed.

About reports of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif’s return next month, he said he had no knowledge about him as the Sharifs went abroad under a deal. But Benazir Bhutto, he said, was in self-exile and she could come back first.

On Bahawalpur plane crash in which his father Gen Ziaul Haq had been killed, he said several commissions were set up and reports were submitted, but without any result.

He demanded a criminal inquiry into the plane crash on the basis of the facts unearthed by a judicial commission.

Principal Information Officer Ashfaq Gondal, Taufeeq Butt, Dr Miskeen Ali Hijazi, Mustafa Sadiq and others also spoke.