SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders speaking at a public meeting at Clock Tower Chowk here on Thursday strongly condemned what they described as harassment of clerics and their students and action against seminaries in the name of security.

They warned of a series of protests across Sindh if action against seminaries and registration of cases against clerics on the pretext of violation of the loudspeaker law were not stopped immediately.

“We are planning to stage a sit-in outside CM House in Karachi on April 2 if harassment of clerics, seminaries and their students is not stopped,” Sindh JUI-F secretary general Maulana Rashid Soomro told leaders and activists of his party at the public meeting.

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Referring to various government moves against religious parties and organisations at the behest of the US and West, Maulana Soomro reminded the authorities that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and Ulema had rendered great sacrifices for the homeland of Muslims. He condemned the propaganda that seminaries were producing terrorists and said the JUI-F stood against all sorts of terrorism including the attacks on the Peshawar Army Public School and the Shikarpur imambargah.

He said it was an undeniable fact that seminaries preached peace, love and brotherhood as per the teachings of Islam. “Our seminaries teach Sharia and Fiqh and these subjects have nothing to do with killing or terrorism,” he argued.

He urged party workers and supporters to join the April 2 march from Hyderabad to Karachi for a sit-in outside CM House.

Maulana Soomro said the terrorists being hanged these days had never been enrolled at any seminary nor had they been issued a certificate or degree by a religious institution.

The JUI-F leader warned that clerics would be compelled to break the seals to reopen their seminaries if the uncalled-for operation continued with ill intentions.

He said clerics were being stopped from preaching Islam by misusing the law on the use of loudspeakers at mosques.

Maulana Abdul Karim Halejwi, Syed Siraj Ahmed Shah, Qari Mohammed Usman and others also spoke.

Leading cleric dies

Thousands of people from all walks of life attended the funeral prayers for leading religious scholar Qari Khalil Ahmed, head of the Majlis-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat in upper Sindh and custodian of the Sukkur Jamia Masjid, held here on Wednesday. Ulema belonging to different schools of thought as well as prominent political, religious and social figures took part in the funeral prayers, led by Maulana Asad Thanvi.

Qari Khalil Ahmed, 75, who remained associated with his Sukkur seminary for 40 years, died when the car he was travelling in along with his some close associates overturned while on its way from Badin to Sukkur on Tuesday night. He was buried in the New Goth graveyard.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

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