Terrorism not to be controlled on patron of Dengue control program: PAT

• Religious seminaries should not fear inspection if they have nothing to do with terrorism.
• PAT will write to WTO to apprise it of reasons as to why Dr Tauqeer Shah was rewarded with ambassadorship.
• Allied parties condemn government for supplying flawed list of defunct organizations.
• Suicide attack in Rawalpindi strongly condemned
• Dr Raheeq Abbasi addresses press conference along with leaders of allied parties.

Addressing a press conference along with the leaders of allied parties, central PAT President Dr Raheeq Abbasi has said that terrorism would not be brought under control on the pattern of Dengue Control programme. He said that the Punjab government should have tabled the bill in the assembly session that continued for one month instead of issuing an ordinance. He said that the religious seminaries that have nothing to do with terrorist activities should not fear inspection, adding that we would not let terrorists impose their agenda on the basis of gun nor will we let government play the role of a double agent. He said that there is a need of initiating political Zarb-e-Azb in the country like military Zarb-e-Azb operation currently underway in North Waziristan. He asked the government to purge its ranks of supporters of terrorists.

The leaders of allied parties who were present on the occasion were Allama Nasir Sherazi of Majlis-e-Wahdat-ul-Muslameen, Allama Imdadullah Qadri of Minhaj-ul-Quran Ulama Council, Mufti Kareem of Sunni Ittehad Council, Allama Imtiaz Kazmi, Maulana Arshid Qadri, Ghulam Saeed Ahmad Farooqi, Maulana Naeem Javed Noori, Ghulam Asghar Siddiqi and Mir Asif Akbar.

Dr Raheeq Abbasi said that Dr Tauqeer Shah, an officer of Grade-20, has been posted as Ambassador in World Trade Organization (WTO) against a post of Grade-22. He said this appointment is a reward for him for his services he rendered in Model Town tragedy. He said that PAT would write to WTO to apprise it of ‘wonderful work’ done by Dr Shah. He said that the PAT chief had disclosed regarding impending promotion of Dr Tauqeer Shah in his press conference about two and half months ago. He said that we would soon announce a new line of action in connection with getting justice for Model Town victims. He said that terrorist incident in Rawalpindi has proven that despite emergency, the government has done nothing to secure life and property of the masses and no gathering and no place is safe from the reach of terrorists. He said that PAT strongly condemns the act of terrorism in Rawalpindi.

Dr Abbasi said that provision of free and compulsory education to children aged between 5 and 16 years under Article 25-A of the Constitution is responsibility of the government, adding that had the government fulfilled its responsibility our children would not have to go to religious seminaries of dubious character to read objectionable content. He said that the PAT and other allied parties, through this press conference, demands of the government to immediately start registration of seminaries and that those refusing to be registered should not be allowed to operate under any circumstances. He said that protection of life and honour is the responsibility of the government and it is transferring this responsibility to the masses through an Ordinance. He said that if the government cannot provide protection to people, it has no right to stay in power.

The PAT President condemned the supply of flawed information regarding banned outfits to media and demanded of the government to put its facts right and initiate proceedings against those who did this criminal act. He said that Pakistan is in a statement of war due to such sham actions and fudged facts and figures. He said that if the matter of funding to religious seminaries was not taken seriously, the chances of success of National Action Plan against Terrorism will be bleak. He said that educational institutions are opening from January 12 and it is the government’s responsibility to protect each and every student. He said that the government did not depute security guards at the schools because it said it was running shorts of funds, but added in the same breath that on the same day, it had the gall to launch a taxi scheme of Rs. 31 billion and funds of billions of rupees were released for Rawalpindi metro bus scheme.

Dr Raheeq Abbasi said that the rulers should make the protection of life and property of every citizen of this country their top priority instead of metro bus service, motorway, flyovers and taxies. He said that boards were constituted in 1970, 1979 and 2001 having representation of religious scholars as well to offer recommendations for changes in syllabi but those were never implemented despite consensus being there on them. He said if the same attitude was demonstrated again, then there would be no concession for steps aimed at eliminating terrorism.

The leaders of the allied parties said that action should be taken against seminaries found to be involved in terrorism and the government should shun the policy of double-speak. They said that the Chief Minister of Punjab, by getting himself pictured smilingly with those who described the 21st amendment as suicide attack on Parliament, has sent out a message that PML-N is a political wing of terrorists. Allama Nasir Sherazi, while speaking on the occasion, said that there is a group of Taliban that has guns in their hands and there is another group of them sitting in Parliament that are running a political campaign in their support.