LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq has said a national consensus is needed for the revival of the military courts but the government itself seems to be undecided about it.

Talking to media at a reception hosted in his honour by former MPA Syed Ehsanullah Waqas here on Sunday, he said the government had yet neither consulted the political parties on the revival of military courts nor taken them into confidence.

He stressed that the government should take measures to streamline the civil judicial system and security of the judges.

If the government is finding itself in a difficult situation to decide the issue of military courts, he said, the government should have taken the political parties into confidence and evolved a national consensus.

Mr Haq said all sorts of criminals should be handed down exemplary punishments to create deterrence. However, he said, harassing the Afghan refugees or the residents, living in Pashtun areas, was not justified.

“We will appreciate if the government arrests a criminal from a madressah, a college or the one sitting in the corridors of powers,” he said.

Siraj said the JI would welcome any operation against the criminals but any such activity should not be used against religion, mosques, madrressahs or the ulema. If any operation was launched in the name of Islam, he said, it would be tantamount to endorsing the enemy agenda.

“We want action against the criminals but Islam should not be made the target because this will be tantamount to playing the enemy’s game,” he said and added, “Considering all those coming from Afghanistan as enemy and treating them alike is wrong”.

He said saints like Syed Ali Hajveri and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar also came from Afghanistan and spread the message of Islam to millions of people here.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2017