PESHAWAR, Jan 22: Religious parties and militant organizations have resolved not to comply with the government decision to register Madaris and mosques.

“Being Muslims, we will never compromise the sanctity of mosques and Madaris”, said Sirajul Haq, the general-secretary of the Pak-Afghan Defence Council (PADC), NWFP chapter, while speaking at a press conference here on Monday.

The council held a meeting at Al-Markaz-i-Islami to discuss arrangements for the “Pakistan Defence Conference” scheduled to be held at Shahi Bagh here on Jan 27.

Mr Haq criticized President Gen Pervez Musharraf for his policies against extremist organizations and the arrests of religious leaders, warning that the government would not be allowed to seal or demolish unregistered seminaries or mosques.

The Ulema would use loudspeakers in mosques, he declared and feared that the government might create obstacles on the pretext of making registration compulsory for new Madaris and mosques. “Such obligations are not acceptable to the religious parties.”

He said amendments to the curriculum of Madaris should be made with consultation of the Ulema. He alleged that Gen Musharraf had planned to make the country a secular state at the behest of the United States.

He was of the view that the policies of the government were against the ideology of the country.

The PADC condemned the government decision to ban the militant organizations, and asserted that before banning the groups, Pakistan should have demanded of India to ban all fanatic organizations that he added were involved in the destruction of mosques and the massacre of Muslims. It demanded that the government release the heads of various religious parties and extremist groups.

Mr Haq said that after the removal of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the US forces should have left the military bases in Pakistan immediately.

The US had brought its agents into power in Kabul and that it could not justify its presence in Pakistan, he said and added that the Peshawar conference would determine the political course of the country.