QUETTA – Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman on Thursday said concerted efforts were needed to keep peace and steer the country out of the crises.
Addressing Sheikh-ul-Hind Conference in Qila Saifullah, he said before the partition, the Muslims were slaves of Britishers, but now they had been made slaves of the United States and the West. “Sheikh-ul-Hand’s lesson bears great importance for the coming generations and we neither accepted slavery in the past nor will we accept US slavery,” the JUI-F chief added.
He said that it was the responsibility of the state to provide security to the people and their property, but the state had failed to do so. He said Pakistan had come into being in the name of Islam and the two-nation theory had been presented by the Muslims of the subcontinent for a separate country, but even after 65 years the Muslims could not become one nation; rather they had been divided into Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
The JUI-F chief who is also chairman of the Kashmir Committee said that an unannounced martial law had been imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where civil administration was powerless. “Situation is comparatively good in Balochistan as compared to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The chief justice of Pakistan holds hearing in Quetta and Karachi and asks why people are being picked up and killed, but there is no one to ask about us,” he remarked.
He said the Supreme Court, during its hearings of missing persons’ case, held federal agencies responsible for 80 per cent incidents, but it was strange that the verdict came against the provincial government.
He lamented 45,000 civilians had been martyred during the last 10 years and the country faced the loss of $90 billion. “We want peace and have proposed resolution of all issues in the parliament,” he said.
Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said, “We have a huge burden of foreign debts, so we should think about our economy and take serious steps in this regard. Though we have been blessed with natural resources, fertile land and water reservoirs, the economy of the country had collapsed.” Referring to Balochistan, the JUI-F chief said that people of the province had climbed up mountains, but the federal government was talking about Balochistan package which was nothing but a big joke. “Such steps cannot end the sense of deprivation of Baloch people until they are assured of their rights and it is the responsibility of the state to do so,” he added.
He said, “We are fighting the war on terror. I ask who imposed this war on Pakistan. The rulers blame Taliban and Taliban blame the rulers, but I say when the US attacked Afghanistan, Pervez Musharraf decided to support the US and made the country part of the war on terror. Had Pakistan remained impartial, we could have played an important role in Afghanistan.”
JUI-F Central Secretary General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidery, JUI-F Balochistan Amir Senator Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, and others also spoke on the occasion.