QUETTA, Nov 12: Maulana Noor Mohammad, provincial leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), has resigned from the National Assembly in protest against the Oct 30’s airstrike on a seminary in Bajaur, military operation in Waziristan and Balochistan, and non-implementation of recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology for enforcement of Islamic system in the country.

After handing over his resignation, addressed to the speaker of the National Assembly, to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, he returned to Quetta on Sunday morning.

Maulana Noor Mohammad claimed that the voters of the NA-159 Quetta constituency had reposed confidence in him by electing him to the lower house in the 2002 polls to raise voice in the assembly for the enforcement of Shariah.

He said that the government, instead of supporting religious elements in the enforcement of the recommendations of the CII and for running the affairs of the state in a democratic manner, had launched military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan.

He said: “The attack on the seminary in Bajaur in which dozens of innocent students were martyred was the worst of the actions taken by the government to eliminate political opponents through use of force that negates Islamic values and democratic norms.”

In his letter of resignation, he alleged that the government had joined the United States in the so-called war on terror against Muslim political forces.

The JUI-F leader said that the government was intentionally targeting religious elements which were waging struggle, with the support of the people, to enforce Islamic laws to meet the ideological requirements for which Pakistan had come into existence.He said the federating units were denied autonomy and control over their resources and the government was reluctant to empower the provinces.

Maulana Noor Mohammad said the government was neither inclined to appoint Ulema in the judiciary, from the judicial magistrate to the apex court, nor did it want to implement Balochistan’s constitutional quota in the federal services by employing jobless graduates.

In the letter, he reminded the speaker that over the last four years he had presented several memorandums to the chair and to the president, prime minister, Balochistan governor and chief minister pertaining to enforcement of Islamic laws but he had received no response from any of them.

He said that because of injustices and excesses, he could not meet the commitments he had made to his voters and, therefore, he was resigning from the assembly with immediate effect.