MULTAN, Sept 16: Federal Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq has sought cooperation of the MMA leadership on the government’s resolve to get all religious schools in the country registered by Dec 31 this year. Speaking to journalists here on Friday, he stressed that the MMA leadership especially Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Husain Ahmad should not politicize the registration issue. “I appealed to them to rather help the government get through the process amicably,” he added.

He said the issue of seminaries had a humanitarian aspect as well because some 1.5 million orphans were living there as interns. He said almost all organizations running religious schools in the country, except the Wafaqul Madaris, had agreed to cooperate with the government on the issue.

The minister said negotiations with the Wafaqul Madaris people were going on and hopefully they would also agree to get all the seminaries working under their umbrella registered. “However, most of the issues being raised by the Wafaq people are objections for the sake of objections,” he remarked.

Answering a question that what kind of action the government had in mind against the seminaries which would not get them registered by the official deadline, the minister said it (action plan) would be spelt out when the deadline would come closer.

Describing the opposition as the weakest of its kind in the country’s history, he said there would be no political upheaval if it might resign from the assemblies. On the issue of the local government elections, he said his group had been adjusted satisfactorily in Bahawalnagar district from where he had contested the general elections.

However, he said, imposing minority groups against the majority would harm the interest of democracy within the (ruling) party. In this regard, he named the districts of Chakwal, Sahiwal and Bahawalpur.

Deliberating upon Pak-Israel relationship, the minister said the government did not say it was going to accept Israel and it would not happen until the establishment of a Palestinian state and independence of Baitul Muqadas. However, he added, there was no harm in playing a role between Israel and the Muslim Ummah to ensure lasting peace in the Middle East.