LAHORE: The Pakistan Ulema Council has called upon all the groups operating in the country to shun their armed struggle in the country.

The appeal was made at a conference organised by the council on the message of the forefathers here on Tuesday.

“All the armed groups in Pakistan should give up their armed struggle against the state of Pakistan and the Pakistani nation and should instead join the struggle for making Pakistan an Islamic, welfare and democratic state,” reads the declaration issued after the moot.

It also urges world religious and political leaders to set a clear guideline for the Muslim youths in the light of the Quran and the Sunnah.

The conference through six separate resolutions demanded grant of all rights to minorities enshrined in the Islamic teachings and in the Constitution, condemned propaganda against seminaries after the Peshawar tragedy, declared as un-Islamic forced marriages and supported promotion of inter-faith and inter-sect harmony.

Council chairman Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi criticised the interior minister for expressing doubts about 10pc seminaries as involved in militancy. He demanded that the minister name the seminaries instead of talking in terms of percentages.

He announced observing 2015 as year of peace and love and free from terrorism. He also announced launching a campaign for the respect of female children.

A conference of clerics from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Egypt would also be convened to find a solution to extremist behaviours, while 5,000 teachers, clerics and students of various seminaries would also be trained during 2015, he added.

He lamented that those blaming the religious people for abusing minorities were not courageous enough to name the feudal lords who were kidnapping girls of Sindh.

He claimed that clerics never issued any decree for the murder of Ahmadis and said “we are abiding by the Constitution while the Ahmadi community should also follow the suit.”

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014