PESHAWAR - Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam-Sami chief Maulana Sami ul Haq said use of National Action Plan against religious seminaries, its students and religious scholars was unacceptable.

The Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) chief was addressing the ‘Tahaffuz-e-Ulema-wa-Madaris’ convention held at Pardabagh on Thursday. Religious figures along with seminaries’ students from across the country attended the event. Maulana Sami ul Haq said on the occasion that restricting religious preaching and arresting religious figures and students under the fourth schedule was inhuman. He demanded that the practice must be stopped and those apprehended should be released immediately.

The existing judicial system can neither eliminate corruption nor provide justice to people. The ruling clique is bent upon making Pakistan a secular and liberal country, Maulana Sami said. He, however, said that JUI-S would protect the country’s Islamic identity. The present government, he said, had totally failed in getting Dr Afia Siddique released from US captivity.

In his speech, JUI-S General Secretary Maulana Abdul Rauf Farooqi said his party had struggled for enforcement of Islamic Shariah in the country, and would do so in future as well. He asked party workers to get united to remove hurdles in this way.

Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, JUI-S deputy chief and son of Maulana Samiul Haq, said JUI-S was an ideological party. It had and would protect the Islamic identity of Pakistan. Central Deputy General Secretary Shah Abdul Aziz said their purpose was not to reach the parliament, but they were struggling for implementation of Islamic law in the country.

JUI-S KP Ameer Maulan Yousaf Shah said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government had kept in dark people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by not telling them truth about China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. He said instead of focusing on merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with KP, the government should have expedited sending the temporarily displaced people (TDPs) back to their hometowns.

Through various resolutions which were passed unanimously, it was demanded of the government to hold referendum on Fata’s future status and stop harassment and arrests of Ulemas and students across the country.