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India-Pakistan
PM Shehbaz commends Dr Zakir Naik for promoting Islam worldwide
2024-10-03
[GEO.TV] Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday lauded eminent scholar Dr Zakir Naik’s exceptional efforts in spreading the true teachings of the Holy Quran and Hadith, besides promoting Islamic values worldwide.

The prime minister warmly welcomed Dr Naik, expressing his admiration for his scholarly work.

He said the entire Ummah was proud of him for projecting the real image of Islam across the world. It was heartening to note that a vast majority of youth listened to his lectures.

PM Shehbaz said that he had personally benefited from the eminent scholar's lectures, enriching himself with the valuable teachings of Islam.

He said that the people of Pakistan fully admired Dr Naik's great personality and were happy about his presence in the country.

The premier noted that Dr Naik was in good health and added that he was happy to know that his (the scholar) son was also following his footsteps and serving Islam.

He also recalled his past meeting with Dr Zakir in 2006.

The scholar, in his remarks, said that Pakistan was the only country in the world which was founded on Islamic principles.

He said that Islam was the religion which offered comprehensive guidance to the entire humanity encompassing every aspect of their lives.

He reiterated his commitment to continuing efforts to spread the message of Islam globally, saying: “The success lies in following the Islamic teachings”.

Recalling that he had last visited Pakistan in 1991, he said he still had fond memories of that tour. He added that he would also visit Karachi and Lahore.

Prior to his meeting with premier, the Islamic scholar met National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq at the Parliament House and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman at his residence in Islamabad a day ago.

The renowned religious scholar along with his son Shaikh Fariq Naik had arrived in Pakistan at the invitation of the government two days ago and will hold public gatherings in multiple cities.

As per the schedule shared by Dr Naik, he will address public talks in Karachi on October 5 and 6, followed by those in Lahore set to take place on October 12 and 13.

Meanwhile, the scholar will address public gatherings in Islamabad on October 19 and 20.
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India-Pakistan
'TTP on agenda' as Fazl gears up for visit to Afghanistan
2024-01-07
[GEO.TV] Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is set to embark on his maiden visit to Afghanistan in nearly 10 years tomorrow (Sunday), sources told Geo News.

The senior politician has banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pak-Afghan bilateral relationship among other issues on the visit's agenda, the sources said.

Interim Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Sardar Ahmed Jan Shakib on December 16, met the senior politician and invited him to visit Afghanistan. Later, Taliban government's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Fazl's upcoming visit.

This will be Fazl's first visit since the Taliban takeover of the war-torn country following the United States withdrawal in 2021.

Fazl first visited Afghanistan in 2013 during the government of former president Hamid Karzai.

The sources said that former member of the National Assembly Jamaluddin Mehsood will accompany the JUI-F chief on the trip.

Continuous use of Afghan soil against Pakistan — an issue that Islamabad has time again raised before the Taliban-led Afghan administration — will also be discussed on the visit, sources added.

Speaking on Geo News' programme "Jirga", which will be aired tomorrow, Fazl said that he has the government's mandate for the Afghanistan visit.

"I believe in negotiations but one can move towards a comprehensive strategy only by looking at the ground realities for talks with TTP," Fazl said.

Related:
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl: 2010-12-30 Govt has no intention to repeal blasphemy law, NA told
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl: 2009-03-24 Religious parties demand sharia in other NWFP areas after Malakand
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl: 2008-07-26 JUI-F jirga in Tirah Valley to seek Fazl's advice
Related:
Fazlur Rehman: 2024-01-03 JUI-F ready to work with PML-N for Pakistan's prosperity, says Fazl
Fazlur Rehman: 2024-01-02 Fazl doesn't see election happening on Feb 8 after DI Khan attack
Fazlur Rehman: 2023-12-12 JI announces no-trust motion against PPP's Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab
Related:
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan: 2023-12-12 Suicide bomber attacks police station in northwest Pakistan, killing 23 officers and wounding 32
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan: 2023-09-20 Over 100 Afghan Security Outposts Built Along Durand Line
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan: 2023-09-12 Kalash youth extend helping hand to security forces
Related:
Taliban: 2024-01-04 Ex-MNA Mohsin Dawar survives gun attack in North Waziristan
Taliban: 2024-01-04 Death toll of the terrorist attack near a cemetery in Iran more than 200 people
Taliban: 2024-01-03 At least 103 killed in Iran 'terrorist attack' at event honoring general taken out in US drone strike
Related:
Zabihullah Mujahid: 2023-11-29 IEA rejects report US bombs left in Afghanistan being smuggled into Mexico
Zabihullah Mujahid: 2023-11-26 Spokesperson: Muttaqi Temporarily to Assume Some Duties of Deputy PM
Zabihullah Mujahid: 2023-10-26 Daily Evacuation Brief October 25-26, 2023
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India-Pakistan
Govt has no intention to repeal blasphemy law, NA told
2010-12-30
[Pak Daily Times] The government on Wednesday issued a policy statement on the blasphemy law while Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah informed the National Assembly that the government had no intention to repeal the law.
"Really, looking foolish on an international scale doesn't bother us a bit."
Speaking on the floor of the House, Shah presented the policy statement of the government on amendment in the blasphemy law. "On behalf of the government as taking the minorities into confidence, I state with full responsibility that the government has no intention to cancel it (Tahafooz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat)," he said. Shah also clarified that a bill by Sherry Rehman seeking amendment in the blasphemy law was a private member bill and the government would not support any such amendment.

"It is the prime duty of the government to ensure Tahafooz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat. I also assure the minorities of the country that the law would not be used to target them," Shah said. Responding on the policy statement of the government, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl's Maulana Attaur Rehman asked Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to assure the House on the issue.
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India-Pakistan
Religious parties demand sharia in other NWFP areas after Malakand
2009-03-24
After the government's decision to introduce Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 in Malakand Division, religious parties have started to make demands for implementation of Swat-like system in other districts of the province and tribal areas. NWFP government while announcing the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 had claimed that under the regulations the people of Malakand Division would get inexpensive and speedy justice in accordance with Sharia law as the Qazi courts would decide cases of criminal nature in four months and of civil nature in six months.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) deputy parliamentary leader in the NWFP Assembly Mufti Kifayatullah told Daily Times on Monday that the government should introduce Swat-like Nizam-e-Adl in other districts of the province as well so that the people could get speedy and inexpensive justice in accordance with Sharia.

He said JUI-F supported the agreement between Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) and Awami National Party (ANP)-led provincial government for peace and implementation of Nizam-e-Adl in Malakand, and demanded introduction of such-like Sharia laws in other districts of the province as well.

Besides JUI-F, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Bajaur Agency have also announced that they would not return to the agency until the federal government imposed Swat-like regulations there to bring peace and establish Islamic system.

On March 15, IDPs' representatives from Kacha Garhi camp 1 and 2, Jalozai Camp and Banazir Camp in a meeting had said that IDPs would not leave their camps until Swat-like regulations were imposed in the agency.

JUI-Samiul Haq provincial leader and former NWFP Assembly deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid told Daily Times that the government should implement Nizam-e-Adl Regulations in other districts of the province so that the people could get speedy and inexpensive justice.

Renowned constitutional expert Qazi Mohammad Anwar told Daily Times that after implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 in Malakand Division, people of other districts would also demand implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulations for quick dispensation of justice. He said in regular courts, cases took years to be decided while under the regulations, qazis were bound to dispose of criminal nature cases in four months and civil cases in six months.

He further said that main relief to litigants in the regulations was execution of decree within two months that takes years in regular courts; and that was why people would force the government to implement these regulations in other districts of the province. Regarding demands for introduction of Nizam-e-Adl Regulations in other districts, NWFP Law Minister Barrister Arshad Abdullah told Daily Times that there were a lot of traditional and historical differences between the people of Malakand Division and of other districts of the province.

He said that Swat was incorporated into NWFP in 1969. Before that, Wali-e-Swat (ruler of Swat) used to decide cases in accordance with traditions and Sharia. That was why, the people of the region were demanding settlement of their cases in accordance with Islamic laws. The law minister said that situation in other districts of the province was quite different and people of other districts would not accept Malakand-like Nizam-e-Adl. They were happy with the courts decisions made under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
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India-Pakistan
JUI-F jirga in Tirah Valley to seek Fazl's advice
2008-07-26
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) peace jirga in the Tirah Valley of the Khyber Agency will meet party chief Fazlur Rehman after completing negotiations with militants on Friday.

Jirga members will inform Fazl of the progress in talks with Ansarul Islam (AI) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and seek his guidance for furthering the "peace process", JUI-F NWFP Information Secretary Haji Jalil Jan told Daily Times.

Sources said that JUI-F jirga failed to break the ice mainly because of the cold response from the AI of Qazi Mahboob. A source privy to the three-day negotiations at an undisclosed location in Khyber Agency said, "No prominent leader of the AI met the jirga members during their three-day stay in the area." The source said that the jirga members managed to meet only leaders and nominees of the LI of Bara-based warlord Mangal Bagh.

The jirga, headed by JUI-F NWFP Secretary General Maulana Shujaul Mulk, had launched their peace initiative in the Tribal Areas soon after the conclusion of the Bara operation. Without being able to arrange a truce between the two warring factions despite visits to the Tirah Valley, the jirga will now make another effort to meet representatives of the AI and discuss their peace formula, said the source. More than 60 people have been killed in fighting between the two militant outfits in the remote valley during the last month.
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India-Pakistan
Mangal Bagh to abide by Bara peace agreement
2008-07-12
A Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) commander said on Friday that LI chief Mangal Bagh has given his consent to a jirga's peace agreement with the government and said the LI would abide by all the terms and conditions.

"We will however continue our activities against criminal elements in Bara," the commander quoted the LI chief as telling the jirga.

Locals said the 18-member jirga of the Afridi tribes called on Mangal Bagh in Tirah Valley and briefed him about their agreement formed with the government on Wednesday.

JUI-F jirga: A separate jirga of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) also met the LI chief in Tirah on Friday evening and discussed with him an end to the ongoing fighting between Ansarul Islam (AI) and his outfit in the remote valley.

The JUI-F had constituted a jirga three days ago to meet aggrieved parties in all the tribal agencies and discuss the restoration of peace and stability in the area. JUI-F's provincial general secretary Shujaul Mulk is leading the jirga. JUI-F information secretary Haji Jalil Jan told Daily Times that the jirga would meet AI chief Qazi Mahboob on Saturday.

Jan said the jirga members would leave for Aurakzai Agency on Saturday evening and reach Hangu district on Sunday morning.

There shall be a grand jirga in Hangu on Sunday where the JUI-F delegation will present its report on its meetings with the LI and AI chiefs and its peace plan for the rest of the tribal agencies, said Jan.

According to locals, around 50 activists from the LI and AI have been killed and scores of others injured in clashes between the two militant outfits in Tirah Valley over the past 20 days.

25 LI militants freed: Also on Friday, the Khyber Agency political administration freed 25 more LI militants from Central Jail, Peshawar, officials told Daily Times.

The number of those freed from captivity after the agreement between Afridi tribes and political administration has now reached 33.
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India-Pakistan
Fazl, Qazi differ over Wajeeh as presidential candidate
2007-09-26
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed said on Tuesday that the reason the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) was supporting Justice (r) Wajiuddin as a presidential candidate was that he was the best candidate in exposing the ineligibility of General Musharraf. While Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said Justice (r) Wajiuddin was not a consensus candidate. The MMA president and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly were talking to the media before the start of the MMA Supreme Council meeting at Al Markaz-e-Islam here.
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India-Pakistan
Clerics worried by lack of respect for fatwas on suicide
2007-05-07
Clerics who issued a fatwa a few weeks ago declaring suicide attacks ‘haraam’ and illegal, are concerned at the fact that even fatwas have failed to stop such attacks by jihadi elements. These religious scholars are of the view that the existing volatile situation has gotten out of control and has reached a point where even religious decrees cannot prevent such elements from their actions.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) NWFP organised a clerics convention on April 17 to protect religious madrassas and tell its activists that problems could be resolved only through peaceful means and not through military ones. The convention also issued a fatwa that said suicide bombing was haraam in Islam and against the law of the land. Over 2,000 clerics from various parts of the country endorsed it and some of it’s signatories were Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Saleemullah Khan, Maulana Muhammad Hanif Jalandhri, Maulana Muhammad Hassan Jan, Maulana Dr Abdul Razaaq Sikandar, Maulana Qazi Hameedullah, Maulana Dr Muhammad Adil Khan, Maulana Dr Sher Ali Khan, Maulana Mufti Ghulamur Rehman and Maulana Muhammad Ullah Jan.

However, the Charsadda suicide bomb attack seems to indicate that the clerics’ decree carried no weight and was ignored. “These are cruel and ignorant people. They have no knowledge and education and don’t even listen to religious scholars,” Sheikhul Hadith Maulana Hassan Jan, one of the fatwa signatories and head of Jamia Imdadul Uloom Al Islamia Darwaish Masjid Peshawar, told Daily Times.
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Afghanistan/South Asia
JI and JUI-F sail in different boats for top council slots
2005-08-31
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday accused the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) of damaging the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal unity.
"They wanna be in charge! We should get to be in charge!"
The JI charged NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan of trying to influence the outcome of the elections for district nazim in Peshawar. “The JUI-F should be blamed for the JI-Awami National Party (ANP) alliance in Peshawar,” Shabir Ahmad Khan, the member of the National Assembly from the JI, told Daily Times. “Our first priority was to ally ourselves with the JUI-F, but it gave a cold response,” he said. It is ironic that both parties are coalition partners in the provincial government, but they have locked horns over district nazim elections. The JI pledged support to the ANP and the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao joined hands with the JUI-F to support its nominee Ghulam Ali for the Peshawar nazim slot. Mr Khan said that the JI-ANP alliance was all set to foil the provincial and federal governments’ bid to make Ghulam win elections to district nazim office. “Mr Sherpao’s alliance with the JUI-F aims at denying the majority group’s right to rule the Peshawar district,” the JI leader alleged.
They've got to rule it. It can't simply be governed.
A pro-federal government political party leader in Peshawar told Daily Times that elections for district nazim in Peshawar would be a “close call.”
"We expect about the same number of dead on both sides..."
“Ghulam Ali will give the JI and the ANP a tough time and the elections will not be as open as many may think,” he said wishing not to be named. The JI leader said that the JUI-F was making wild demands. “When we sat prior to the local polls to make a seat-to-seat adjustment, the JUI-F demanded 80 percent seats in Peshawar district which was not possible.
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Afghanistan/South Asia
Kidnapped JUI-F leader still missing
2005-08-29
PESHAWAR: Law and order situation in Bara, Khyber Agency, remained tense after political authorities failed to recover Maulana Ahmed Khan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl's (JUI-F) Khyber Agency chief and Tanzeem-e-Ittehad-e-Ulema's amir, who was kidnapped a fortnight ago. The administration is still clueless regarding the whereabouts of the religious leader. Ahmed Khan has been the main force behind a peace committee that awarded punishments to criminals for committing violent crimes in area.
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