RAWALPINDI: The head of the Tehreek Nifaz-i-Fiqh Jafariya (TNFJ) announced a 16-point code of conduct for Muharram on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference, TNFJ chief Agha Syed Hamid Ali Shah Moosavi asked the interior minister and provincial governments to form Muharram azadari cells and said all mourning processions would be taken out under the Junejo-Moosavi agreement signed on May 21, 1985.

He said that the National Action Plan should be implemented and proscribed groups would under new names should be stopped from operating. He also called for the names of peaceful and innocent individuals to be removed from the Fourth Schedule, for timely protective measures to be taken at sensitive locations, discipline and timings for majalis and processions, and for steps contrary to the spirit of azadari to be avoided.

Mr Moosavi also brought up Kashmir, saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the foreign minister should not limit themselves to phonesonly but should go around the world to highlight the Kashmir cause.

He said protests are carried out by people, but the government “will have to carry out a practical struggle” as the rights of Kashmiris have been snatched away. He said all kinds of relations with India “may be severed”.

Mr Moosavi also said the government should facilitate those who wish to visit Karbala for Ashura.

He said proscribed organisations are in every institution and their leaders are being awarded with gifts.

He also demanded taburkaat at the shrine of Sultanul Fuqara Hazrat Bari Iman be restored and the imambargah adjacent to the shrine of Sakhi Mehmood Badshah in Islamabad and the shrine of Badshah Mir Anwar be opened to the public.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2019