Pakistani people should stand up against terrorism: Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has asked the Pakistani people to stand up against terrorism and extremism. Time to procrastinate, he added, is over and it is about time our people stood up to be counted. He said that people should establish peace and reconciliation committees at grassroot level to help evolve a local watchdog system to keep an eye on the undesirable elements. He said that the community participation could also be helpful for effective law enforcement and in case of non-cooperation from the authorities, the matters could be brought on media.

Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri expressed these views on his arrival at the Heathrow Airport in London the other day. He said that Minhaj-ul-Quran International was a bulwark against the forces of terrorism and extremism who wanted to suck the youth into blind alley of terrorism through wrong interpretation of religious teachings. He said that the promotion of Islamic message of peace at the platform of MQI had stopped many youths from crossing over to the other side.

Commenting on grave law and order problem in Karachi, which saw over one hundred people dead in target killing in a span of a few days, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that unless honest, capable and representative national leadership emerged through an honest electoral system, the country would continue to go down the drain politically, socially and economically. He regretted that the agenda of the present political leadership across party lines was centered on acquisition of power without any regard for public good.

“There is little possibility of things improving as long as focus and priority of our so-called leaders does not change from personal agenda to the public agenda,” Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri added. Appreciating the role of religious scholars in UK and Europe, he called for the need to equip them with modern techniques and gadgets for propagation of Islam as per demands of the contemporary age to successfully foil the conspiracies of the extremists. When asked about the newly launched party of former President Pervez Musharraf, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that he left it to the people of Pakistan to pass a verdict on its fate.