KARACHI: Shrine blast seen as plot to divide Ummah: 24 parties attend JI’s APC
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Feb 25: The All-Parties Conference, held under the auspices of the Jamaat-i-Islami here on Saturday, has condemned the bomb blasts at sacred shrines in Iraq, and said that it considered the attack as a conspiracy by the US to break the Ummah’s solidarity against the act of blasphemy by certain European newspapers.
In a joint communiqué issued after the conference, the APC condemned the Pakistan government for its apologetic response to the West over the issue.
It deplored the ban imposed on the Feb 19 Shan-i-Mustafa rally in Islamabad and the police action during which the participants of the rally were subjected to baton-charge and shelling. It also slammed the arrest of political leaders and workers for taking part in such rallies.
It warned the government against hurling threats to block the Feb 26 rally in Lahore, making it clear that no hurdle in the way of Shan-i-Mustafa rally would be tolerated as people were prepared to sacrifice their life to defend the sanctity of the holy prophet Mohammad (peace be upon home).
JI’s Naib Amir Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad presided over the APC which was held at the party’s office, Idara Noor-i-Haq and attended by representatives of 24 political and religious parties.
Criticizing Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for making a false statement that the OIC would discuss economic and diplomatic boycott of the offender European countries, it pointed out that the OIC Secretary General Akmaluddin Oghlo had denied presence of any such item on the agenda for the OIC foreign ministers’ moot.
“As the OIC secretary general has termed issuing a Fatwa against the cartoonist ‘incorrect’, the Ummah does not have any expectation from the OIC meeting,” the APC maintained.
Besides deliberating upon the blasphemy issue, the APC discussed the situation prevailing in the country and adopted resolution in this regard.
Through one of its resolutions, the APC accused the US of pursuing the policies aimed at creating instability in all the countries bordering Iraq, and dismembering that country to weaken it. It noted that while Muslims of the entire world were protesting against the US and European countries over the publication of blasphemous sketches, US and Israel were indulged in such a heinous and condemnable act to break the Ummah’s unity and divert its attention from their nefarious designs.
The APC hoped that both Shia and Sunni leaderships would play their due role in controlling the situation arising out of the blasts in the Iraqi shrine.
Expressing concern over the increasing prices, particularly of sugar, the APC observed that capitalists in the government, through hoarding sugar, had created a shortage in the country. Some key figures in the government were behind the crisis, it added.
The APC accused the government of indulging itself in profiteering pointed out that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan had a stock of 20 million tons of sugar. Purchased at Rs17.50 per kg, the sugar was being sold through utility stores at Rs28.50 per kg and in the open market at Rs40 per kg.
The APC pointed out that during the six years of Gen Musharraf’s rule, petrol prices had increased from Rs26 to Rs56 per litre and despite a decline in its prices in the world market, oil prices were not being reduced in Pakistan.
The participants of the APC included N. D. Khan (PPP), Mamnoon Hussain (PML-N), Mohammad Zubair Khan (TI), Allama Hasan Turabi (IT), Syed Mulazim Hussain (SC), Nusrat Mirza (MRC), Shahid Ghauri (ST), Maulana Abdul Karim Abid (JUI-F), Maulana Asad Thanvi (JUI-S), Hafiz Mohammad Taqi (MJUP), Mohammad Amin Khattak (ANP), Yusuf Masti Khan (NWP), Bashart Mirza (PDP), Syed Zia Abbas (NPP) and Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui (JI).
KARACHI, Feb 25: The All-Parties Conference, held under the auspices of the Jamaat-i-Islami here on Saturday, has condemned the bomb blasts at sacred shrines in Iraq, and said that it considered the attack as a conspiracy by the US to break the Ummah’s solidarity against the act of blasphemy by certain European newspapers.
