LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan said after the government had avoided peace talks with Taliban under US pressure; the religious forces should step forward and pave the way for dialogue to save the country and the image of Islam.
Delivering the Friday sermon at Mansoora masjid, the JI chief said if clerics did not rise to the occasion, they would be driven to a blind alley and would have no way out. He warned that neither jet bombings on tribal people could help restore peace nor suicide bombings could pave the way for the enforcement of Shariah.
He said clerics had played key role in framing the 1973 Constitution, and it was their duty at this juncture to protect the country and the constitution. A charge sheet has been issued against the religious parties and they would have to answer that, he added.
He said the enemy had always used differences of the Islamic sects and schools of thought as a weapon against Muslims. The need of the hour was that clerics of different schools of thought should evolve an effective strategy to counter the current campaign against Islam.
He said the propaganda that Taliban did not accept the country’s constitution was being made at this moment with a motive, and the present rulers were going to fulfil Washington’s old desire for annihilating the North Waziristan. He said hundreds of people were falling victim to bombings in Waziristan. He said bombings did not hit a target, they also killed innocent people and after Swat and Bonier, thousands of people had been forced to shift from Waziristan.
