SWABI: Jamaat-i-Islami general secretary Liaquat Baloch has demanded of the government to implement ‘qisas’ law for restoration of peace in the country.

Addressing a workers’ convention of his party by telephone here on Sunday, he said that implementation of ‘qisas’ law would prove helpful in restoration of peace in the country.

Mr Baloch was scheduled to attend the convention but he couldn’t reach Swabi from Lahore due to thick fog and addressed the gathering by telephone. He said that the people involved in killing of innocent children in Army Public Schools Peshawar on December 16 should be awarded exemplary punishment.

The JI leader said that the brutal killing of the schoolchildren perturbed the situation in the country. However, he hoped that they would steer the country out of the crisis by forging unity.


####Liaquat Baloch demands exemplary punishment for the people involved in Peshawar school attack

“We condemned the school attack and share the extreme grief of the parents and entire nation at this critical juncture,” Mr Baloch said. He said that they were hopeful that the leaders of the country would cope with the complicated situation. He said that the people had the courage to confront the crisis.

“We can manage to come out successful from the complicated scenario but we have to avoid the past blunders besides showing tolerance, maintaining harmony and shunning political differences,” he said.

The JI leader said that investigations into the school attack should be completed and the people, who were involved in it directly or indirectly, should be punished because it was demand of the entire nation.

For restoring of peace in the country, he said, there was dire need to adopt and implement the qisas law. “The enforcement of qaisas law would prove helpful in restoration of peace in the country,” Mr Baloch said.

Speaking on the occasion, JI provincial emir Prof Mohammad Ibrahim lashed out at Mutahidda Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain without naming him.

“There is a man in Karachi who says that Lal Masjid should be demolished. I am telling him that the carnage he has carried out in the main commercial city of the country should not be repeated somewhere else because we need peace,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim said that the people, who were talking about harming mosques and religious institutions, should keep in mind that they would disappear but the mosques and madressahs would remain intact forever. He said that they wanted protection of all the mosques and madressahs. He said that complete freedom should be given to the followers of different religions as there were citizens of the county.

“As a nation we have to learn from the past mistakes and should not repeat the same because it might be a complete disaster for the country,” Mr Ibrahim said.

He said that leadership of his party was striving to implement Islamic law in the country under the Islamic democracy. “It has been clearly written in the constitution of the country that sovereignty belongs to Allah Almighty,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim said that peace in Afghanistan was linked to tranquillity in Pakistan. Both the countries should cooperate with each other, he added. “Cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan is a prerequisite for restoration of peace in the two countries. The leaders of both the countries should show sagacity and shrewdness,” he said.

Former MNA Mohammad Usman and district t office-bearers of the party also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2014

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