KARACHI: The Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia announced on Monday that it would observe a Hurmat-i-Rasool (peace be upon him) day on Jan 23 across the country against the publication of controversial cartoons.

Speaking at a press conference here at the Karachi Press Club, Qari Hanif Jhalandhri of the Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia appealed to the rulers of Muslim countries to immediately converged in Madina to give a clear message to all anti-Islam forces that the entire Ummah was united on the issue of Namoos-i-Risalat.

Some 18,677 madressahs are affiliated with the Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia and over 2.3 million students are studying in these seminaries across the country, according to its website.

He also said that the prime minister in Islamabad and all the four chief ministers in their respective provinces should lead the peaceful protest march on Friday to express their concern.

Accompanied by Mufti Muhammad Naeem, Maulana Obaidullah Khalid, Maulana Imdadullah, Maulana Ghulam Rasool, Maulana Muhammad Yar and others, he asked Pope Francis to exercise his global influence for legislation to ensure sanctity of holy personalities.

He regretted that certain government functionaries and the administration, instead of eliminating terrorism from the country, were promoting it.

He demanded that all settled conditions between the government and the madressahs representatives be immediately implemented and action be taken against all those creating hindrances in the registration of madressahs.

He recalled that a meeting held on Jan 17 agreed that all institutions, including madressahs, would be registered without any discrimination.

In the meeting it was also agreed that the government and representatives of the madressahs would finalise the registration form to collect data about madressahs. However, he said, police were unnecessarily harassing the people running the madressahs and adopting an insulting attitude, which could not be tolerated. He demanded action against all such elements who were trying to pit the government and madressahs against each other.

He said that besides madressahs, lawyers, political workers, religious parties, journalists and civil society also had reservations over the 21st amendment to the Constitution. The government should address these reservations through the 22nd constitutional amendment, he suggested.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2015

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