April 25, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 07, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 24: The government told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the prolonged defiance of state authority by Lal Masjid and its two madressahs — Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia — would end in “a few days”, after some members of the ruling coalition made only subdued protests over the issue.

Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich said two brothers occupying the Lal Masjid were using female students of the Jamia Hafsa as a shield in their defiance and did not listen to the advice of some prominent ulema of the country to end their activities.

But he said talks initiated recently by Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had made a “significant progress” and added: “We will be able to resolve the issue in a few days.”

He did not explain the details of the talks, which had been marked in the past by claims of progress by the government but denials from the defiant mullahs seeking to virtually Talibanise Islamabad by enforcing their brand of religious morality through armed male and female madressah students on the lines of Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers.

The issue had been raised through call-attention notice by five members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement that said the “law and order situation created by the students of the Lal Masjid (red mosque) and Jamia Hafsa” had caused “a grave concern among the public”.

But the sponsors of the notice asked the minister only mild questions, which appeared to be far cry from strong protests voiced by some ruling party members during the last National Assembly session in February at the start of the militant move when the female students of the Jamia Hafsa occupied a government-run children’s library in protest against the demolition of some unauthorised mosques built on encroached land in the capital.

Since then the madressah students had been raiding shops in central Islamabad to seize and burn music cassettes and CDs besides kidnapping three women for alleged moral deviations and two policemen, and vowing not to end their activities until enforcement of their brand of sharia in the country.

Mr Warraich said the opposition would have raised a storm if the government had used force that could cause casualties.

“The situation had already changed (after the PML chief’s move) and the matter will be resolved in a few days,” he said.

But he told a questioner that suitable action would be taken if the other side resorted to violence.

Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain often cut short members’ questions in an apparent move to play down the issue, which came up when members of an Indian parliamentary delegation sat in a gallery to witness the proceedings.