ISLAMABAD, April 26: Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said the European Union’s refusal to meet Senator Maulana Samiul Haq is an eye-opener for the government. In a statement issued here, she said the incident indicated the concerns that the international community had regarding the state of civil society in Pakistan.

The international press had printed several articles about the politics of hate preached at the Madressahs in the NWFP. This should have been kept in mind while selecting members of the delegation that was to visit the EU, she said.

The government claimed that it would reform the religious institutions with a view to providing modern as well as religious education to the students. This policy was pursued by the PPP government, which had regulated the Madressahs during its tenure between 1993 and 1996. Ms Bhutto said each country had the right to issue or refuse a visa to a foreigner. However, no country has the right to stop its own citizens from entering their homeland.

She said there was little use criticizing the EU for exercizing it right and refusing to meet the Maulana, while covering up the ugly reality back home where the regime had banned respectable citizens from coming back to their country on fabricated charges.

The PPP chairperson said it was puzzling that while the government banned the former prime ministers from contesting the elections, it allowed Madressahs’ leaders, who had trained fighters for the Afghan Jihad and who later became Taliban, to enter the Parliament.

She asked the government to clarify this discrepancy as its was undermining the pursuit of its stated goals to have an enlightened society.