RAWALPINDI: Khan Habibullah Khan, Minister for Home and Kashmir Affairs, said here today [Feb 27] that Maulana Kausar Niazi’s correspondence with Maulana Maudoodi has confirmed the view that Maulana Maudoodi was virtually a dictator within the Jamaat and his aim was to grab power through any means. In a Press statement, he said that it was now clear that he had set up an organisation which contained a large element of paid agents and the so-called decisions of the Majlis-i-Shoora were really his own. Khan Habibullah said: “In my public statements on various occasions I have been emphasising that the Jamaat-i-Islami is a purely political organisation and was using religion as a cover for its political activities. For proving this I mainly relied on Maulana Maudoodi’s own writings like ‘Mazi-i-Qarib Ka Jaeza’, ‘Jamaat-i-Islami, its policies and objectives’, ‘Haqiqat-i-Jehad’ and ‘Musalman aur Maujooda Siyasi Kashmakash’.

“Many shared my belief that the Jamaat was professedly against the ideology of Pakistan, believed in acquisition of political control by constitutional means ... and did not believe in the fundamental principles of democracy to establish Government on the basis of majority opinion. What I said about the Jamaat in the past is now amply borne out by the statement of no less a person than Maulana Kausar Niazi.”

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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