June 25, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 09, 1428

NOWSHERA, June 24: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has denied that the government is going to dissolve the present assemblies in July as reported in a section of the print and electronic media. The assemblies will complete their term, he said.

Talking on Sunday to his party members at the residence of Mumlikat, a town nazim from Nowshera, Mr Sherpao dispelled the impression that Islamabad was going to strike a political deal with the People’s Party Parliamentarians and winding up its present power-sharing system.

He said back-channel talks were part of politics and such a move could not be dubbed as “political deal”.

He said PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League-N president Nawaz Sharif could come back to Pakistan at any time as it was up to them. About their arrest, he said it would be untimely to say anything about it.

He also lashed out at the clerics of the Jamia Hafsa seminary, who had challenged the writ of the government by kidnapping nine Chinese nationals from Islamabad and brought a bad name for the country.

He said people like Jamia Hafsa managers had been portraying a wrong picture of Islam by their unwise actions in western countries. Mr Sherpao said such people were doing a great disservice to Islam. He said: “Islam does not allow trespassing of privacy, kidnapping and harassing of the people. The students of the seminary had committed a crime by raiding the clinic of run by Chinese nationals, who are the citizen of China, a close and trusted friend of Pakistan.”

He said the government had contacted the managers of the seminary through scholars of the Wafaqul Madaris to end their unlawful practices, but they were not responding in a positive way.

He said the government wanted to solve this issue peacefully.