ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Sufi Mohammad’s Nifaz-i-Shariat Committee of Swat has decided to support the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Maulana Multan Mir, a representative of Sufi Mohammad, conveyed the decision via teleconferencing from Swat during a consultative meeting organised by the Council of Islamic Ideology here on Thursday.

“We do not oppose the programme because our people also have a right to share the state’s benevolence,” he said.

BISP Chairperson Farzana Raja presided over the meeting held in collaboration with the Iqbal International Institute for Research and International Islamic University.

The topic of discussion was “Democracy and Social Welfare Programme for Poor, especially Women, in the light of Shariah.”

Ms Raja thanked Sufi Mohammad for his support to the programme.

She questioned the logic for opposing the programme since the 1973 Constitution clearly stated that country’s laws must conform to the Quran and Sunnah.

IIU Vice-Chancellor Dr Farooq Khan said that as far as Swat was concerned the people in general did not oppose the programme.

He said that people in the present-day Swat, after its affiliation with Pakistan, felt they were being denied justice. There was a time when day-to-day grievances of people were redressed within a week, or so. Now it took years; a dispute over a piece of land did not get resolved even after 30 years. The people of Swat wanted an efficient justice system, he said.

CII Chairman Dr Khalid Masud drew attention to the Islamic system of Zakat and said it was a golden means to provide justice to all citizens of an Islamic state by sharing wealth between the rich and poor.

He also presented guidelines about the Nifaz-i-Shariat movement in Malakand, Fata and Swat.

Senator Prof Ebrahim, Khursheed Nadeem, Dr Suhail Husain, Dr Mustafvi (Musktar), Maulana Shafi Hazarvi, Zafar Jalali, Maulana Shafaat Najfi and Mufti Naeem also took part in the discussion.

They said that parliament was an appropriate forum to initiate the process of Ijtehad and interpret the Quranic verses to provide equal justice to all citizens.The BISP chief informed the meeting she had gone to great lengths in Swat and Fata and waived the requirement of photo on ID card for a woman to ensure that she received relief under the programme.

“This morning (Thursday), I approved dispatch of 70,000 money orders for delivery at the doorstep of women, who are sick or who have been denied support to meet their daily expenses,” Ms Raja said.