KARACHI: Leaders of various political and religious parties on Sunday passed a consensus resolution calling upon the government to observe Al-Quds Day at an official level and revise the existing curricula by making the Palestine issue a part of textbooks.

The resolution was passed after representatives and leaders of parties spoke at length at the Al-Quds conference organised by the Palestine Foundation Pakistan here.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said supporting the struggle of Palestinians was a part of faith of Pakistani Muslims. He added that many nations across the world were backing the Palestinians for the sake of humanity.

JI chief Sirajul Haq says no attempt to recognise Israel by Pakistan will succeed

He said Palestinians were the only nation that fought with stones against tanks and “today, children of Palestine dream to be martyred instead of getting education in schools”.

He said Islam is Pakistan’s foundation, which was why “we have always supported the Palestinians”.

He said a US fleet was present in the Arabian Sea as the United States “is making plans to attack Iran, which will be gravely harmful for the Ummah”.

He said Israel was taking advantage with tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia as “the Zionist state wants to dominate the world by making Muslim states fighting against each other”.

He made it clear that no attempt to recognise the state of Israel by Pakistan would succeed.

“Israel will give no importance even Pakistan recognises it because Israel values India much more. India, Israel and America are all part of a troika,” said the JI chief.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Muhammad Zubair, a former governor of Sindh, said a number of Arab and other Muslim countries had diplomatic relations with Israel as all those nations had done that to keep Iran at bay.

He said Pakistan could raise the Kashmir issue in a better manner if it raised the issue of Palestine. “Pakistan’s Foreign Office should raise the Palestine issue internationally.”

Disgruntled Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar said the atrocities continuing in Palestine should widely be debated upon.

He said Al-Qads Day should be observed across the country at an official level.

He said US President Donald Trump had taken a task upon himself to turn the occupied territory into a property of Israel.

He asked the Pakistani government to keep supporting the Palestinians with explicit and solid stance.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Israr Abbasi claimed that his party’s government was “pressurised to recognise the state of Israel, but Prime Minister Imran Khan refused to succumb to such pressures”.

He said the government would raise voice for the rights of the Palestinians at all levels.

Allama Baqir Zaidi, general secretary of the Majlis Wehdat-i-Muslimeen Sindh, MQM-P’s Mehfooz Yar Khan, Aliya Imam, Qazi Ahmed Noorani, Azhar Hamdani and others said despite use of all might and committing atrocities it was Israel which itself was confined and surrounded.

They claimed that Israel had manufactured Daesh, the militant Islamic State group, to occupy Syria, but it failed in such tactics. They added that Israel’s days were numbered.

They said freedom fighters in Palestine were battling against the ‘evil forces’ despite they had little resources to keep their fight alive. They resolved that they would be supporting the freedom struggle of the Palestinians.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2019