DAWN/The News International, KARACHI 31 March 2008, Monday, 22 Rabiul Awal 1429
www.karachipage.com (click on underlined key-words/dates to get more details)
MQM decides to sit in opposition
Minor mishap turns into political clash
Watchman slaughtered in Defence
Body found
Karachi braces itself for a cruel, cruel summer
Chaudhrys feel distraught, betrayed (more)
PM offers apology to Ramday (more)
Fazl demands high-level probe into Jamia Hafsa operation (more)
Sufi flays terrorist activities of Fazlullah (more)
Local Taliban ask govt to sever ties with US (more)
Girls’ college, school blown up in Darra (more)
Missile destroys pro-govt Taliban leader’s office (more)
Security forces find 58 bodies in Kohat (more)
CIA says Al Qaeda training ‘western’ terrorists (more)
Religious schools: boon or bane? (more)
MQM decides to sit in opposition

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has finally decided to sit in opposition in the Centre as well as in Sindh.

This was stated by MQM MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi while talking to The News from Islamabad on Sunday.

He said: “We are part of the opposition at the federal level and will be part of opposition in Sindh as well.”

When asked as to what direction the dialogue between the MQM and the PPP was heading, he said no further headway has been made after some initial talks and every thing seems to be at standstill.

He said that there have been no serious efforts from the PPP to take the MQM on board vis-a-vis formation of the government.

It may be noted here that the MQM had extended unconditional support to the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in his election to the premier’s slot.

However, PPP’s coalition partners including the PML-N and the ANP have expressed reservations about the inclusion of MQM in the coalition government at the federal level.

When asked if Asif Ali Zardari’s arrival in Karachi on Monday could lead to the possibility of high level talks between the PPP and the MQM, Rizvi said: “We haven’t received any message from the quarters concerned in this regard.” —FM

Minor mishap turns into political clash

A minor mishap turned into a politicised clash after a speeding tanker hit the indicator of a motorcyclist. The incident occurred at Sohrab Goth, in the Sachal police limits. After the incident, two rival political groups exchanged fire, in which a man was killed, while the tanker driver was injured.

Najeebullah was killed, while a driver of a tanker, Illyas, got injured during a clash between two rival political groups.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident was reported a little distance from the Sohrab Goth police station, when a speeding tanker (LSA-2417), trying to avoid running over a motorcyclist, hit the bike’s indicator. The motorcyclists were safe, however, they came in front of the tanker and started arguing with the driver.

The activists belonging to the two rival groups then reached the spot and started scuffling and pointing weapons at each other due to which the tanker driver, Illyas, and a pedestrian, Najeebullah, got injured. The miscreants torched the tanker and a bus was also damaged. In the meantime, a heavy contingent of Police and Rangers reached the spot and, after some resistance, which lasted for hours, controlled the situation.

Police sources said that the victim, Najeebullah, succumbed to his injuries, while Ilyas survived. The deceased was the resident of Ganna Mandi, Sohrab Goth. It was further stated that both the rival groups kidnapped the activists of each other and later the police recovered the abductees. However, even after the violence, a heavy contingent of police and rangers remained present at the spot, while the shops in the area were closed.

SPO, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Abdul Salaam, said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakhtoon Student Federation clashed and also started aerial firing due to which two people were injured.

Salaam added that both groups kidnapped the activists of one another, but they were later recovered. A case was lodged by Munawer Khan against the motorcyclist Irfan, son of Rahim, who was nominated as the accused in the FIR, and other people.

Watchman slaughtered in Defence

A watchman was slaughtered by unidentified men in the servant quarters of a retired naval officer’s house in the Defence police limits.

Ameerullah, 24, was slaughtered by unidentified men in the Defence police limits. The police said that the incident was reported inside the servant quarters of

retired Naval Officer, Khalid Mehmood’s house, situated in Phase-II, in the Defence police limits.

While inspecting the quarters, it was found that the deceased was tied with ropes on the bed by unidentified men who later cut his neck with a knife. After slaughtering him they fled the scene. In the morning, when the door was opened, Ameerullah’s employer found the body of the deceased. A case was lodged on complaint of the deceased’s brother, Abdul Rehman.

The deceased was the resident of Block-30, Keamari. He belonged to Batgram (Hazara) and was unmarried. The deceased was killed over some enmity. Further probe is underway.

Body found

An unidentified body of a man, aged around 25, was found from the Big Water Light House, Manora, in the Docks police limits. A case was reported at the police station.

MISHAP: A speeding coach overturned at the Steel More. The police said that the incident was reported at the Steel More when a speeding Siraj Coach (PE-4220) due to over-speeding and reckless driving overturned. In the mishap five people, including two ladies, were injured, who were identified as Dilawer, Ms Sabra, Ms Muneera, Lalu and Akram. A case was reported at the police station.

DACOITY: A group of armed bandits looted a Karachi-bound bus near Dhabeji. The bandits travelling as passengers halted a Karachi-bound bus near Dhabeji and deprived the passengers of their cash, cellphones and other valuables.

They also intercepted another bus and looted its passengers before fleeing. Later, the passengers observed a sit-in on the National Highway and criticised the police for the growing lawlessness in the area.

Karachi braces itself for a cruel, cruel summer

Karachiites should start planning ways to generate their own electricity in the near future. The current daily load-shedding of 6-8 hours endured by the city is just a “promo” of the actual “feature” that is to be released in coming days with the advent of the summer peak season – starting from April 20 this year, The News has learnt.

Officials in the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) believe that the coming days would be harsher not only for citizens but also for them and their staff. With the surge in electricity demand, they say, there will be longer and more frequent power breakdowns than what is currently being endured by the people.

Currently, the city’s electricity demand is nearly 2,100 megawatts (MW), which translates into a 300 MW shortfall in supply. However, the demand is expected to increase to 2,500 to 2,600 MW by the end of April – a surge that is unlikely to be met with any additional electricity generation or supply.

“KESC’s only hope is WAPDA, which is currently providing 300 MW; but even if it doubles the electricity supply to KESC in the peak season, still there will be a shortage of 300 to 400 MW,” a senior KESC engineer told The News, adding that they were heading towards a disaster-like situation.

According to KESC’s estimates, electricity demand increase by 8 to 11 per cent annually, especially in the peak season that starts from April 20, which will see people using more air conditioners at homes and offices. For this, there must be an additional generation of around 10 per cent of electricity every year.

A KESC expert, when contacted, told The News, on condition of anonymity, that the electricity-supply situation in the city was expected to become worse in the next few weeks as demand would be hitting peaks. During this time, faults in generation and transmission systems would become more frequent.

“Last year, WAPDA provided up to 715 MW of electricity to KESC in the peak season; but, this year, it is facing its own shortage owing to lesser water in the reservoirs. Even if it provides the same amount of electricity to Karachi this year, there would at least be a shortage of 300 to 400 MW,” he warned.

The situation, he said, would be even worse than the previous year.

Managing Director KESC Lt. General (retd) Syed Muhammad Amjad added to the worries of people on Saturday when he told a delegation of the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) that the KESC could not produce electricity to meet its demand. Whatever power it was getting from WAPDA, he added, was being supplied to consumers.

Talking to the delegation, he said that the power crisis could be abated by the year 2012 – that too provided that the installation of new power-generating units starts at once.

However, while he claimed that they were trying to reduce the duration of load-shedding, at the same time he also warned that it was highly unlikely that this would be possible and that people should be ready for longer power breakdowns.

Chaudhrys feel distraught, betrayed

WASHINGTON: The hardcore supporters of President Pervez Musharraf, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, feel distraught and betrayed by the Presidency for the apparent reason that they are of no more use.

The beleaguered Presidency, in a bid to fight for its survival, is ready to broker compromise with any party, giving no care to the comrades-in-trouble who emerged as villains while defending all the blunders of the top man.

All of their political allies, including the MQM, are saying them goodbye one by one ‘allegedly’ by taking guidance from the Presidency. A top aide of the Chaudhrys, nowadays in the US capital, said it was a shocking moment for the PML-Q leadership when intimated by the MQM leadership that "they have been asked to support the PPP-led coalition government".

Earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat to whom President Musharraf used to call as a "beeba admi (fine person)" heard his chief patron, asking him to call it a day as his party colleagues did not trust his leadership.

According to the source, Shujaat was in shock when he received a call from London a day before the election of the new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. A senior MQM leader from London told Chaudhry on telephone that the top presidential aides (read Tariq Aziz and ex-DG MI Maj. Gen. Nadim Ejaz) had asked them to support the PPP.

The source, who was present during this telephonic conversation, told The News that the MQM leader said that the presidential aides claimed that they had already taken Shujaat into confidence over this issue.

According to the source, Shujaat felt very upset by learning of, what he said, "double dealing". Shujaat told the MQM leader that, first of all, he had not been asked to support the PPP candidate and had this been asked, the PML-Q would not have done so. According to the source, it was later that the party leadership decided to give vote of confidence to Gilani as a 'goodwill gesture'.

Referring to a meeting in the Presidency, the source quoted Musharraf saying, "There is a need to repackage things." Musharraf said that he kept receiving complaints against the Chaudhrys from other party leaders and there was a need to resolve these disputes and address the concerns. A confidant of the Chaudhrys stood up and asked the president: "Could I simply explain what you said." Upon receiving affirmative response from Musharraf, that man said: "You are saying that Chaudhry Shujaat should quit the party office. You want that some other leader should replace him. But let me tell you that none of the aspirants of the top party office has had the habit to offer a cup of tea if somebody comes to see them." This he said in clear reference towards Farooq Leghari, Manzoor Wattoo and Humayun Akhtar.

"If the party has been defeated, it does not mean that its head should quit. The PPP and PML-N faced defeat many times and did their workers ever demand the resignation of party leader?" that man further said, putting Musharraf on the defensive.

The situation for the Chaudhrys has entirely changed. Their house often wears a deserted look with just five or six people visiting them and no more. "I really feel pity for them so I am with them," the source said. He said that it would be sooner than later that the PML-Q lawmakers would come out publicly against Musharraf if he went ahead with the same tone and theme.

 PM offers apology to Ramday

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday offered an apology to the deposed Supreme Court Judge, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, for the Saturday’s incident, in which his house was ransacked and forcibly got vacated. In a telephonic contact with Justice Ramday, the prime minister assured him that the government would take stern action against the responsible persons after investigation. "You are our judge and we respect you from the heart," he said. The PM had already ordered his Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik to send him a complete report by Monday. On the orders of the prime minister, the Interior Ministry came into action and returned the belongings of deposed Justice.

Fazl demands high-level probe into Jamia Hafsa operation

MULTAN, March 30: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has demanded a high-level probe into the Jamia Hafsa operation.

Endorsing a PPP demand for a UN-led investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the Maulana told a press conference here on Sunday that the issue of Jamia Hafsa also needed a high-level probe to determine why so many “innocent people had been killed”.

He said that the FCR was the product of an agreement with the tribes and, therefore, its repeal could create problems.

He said before bringing any change, tribes’ consent “must be sought”.

He said that there was no need to change the legislation enforced by the previous government about the religious institutions, adding that religious institutions had never refused to hold consultations with the government.

Sufi flays terrorist activities of Fazlullah

PESHAWAR: The detained chief of the proscribed Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) Maulana Sufi Muhammad on Sunday flayed the terrorist activities of Maulana Fazlullah and his cronies in Swat Valley, saying that they were bringing a bad name to Islam.

"They are doing no service to Islam by carrying out suicide attacks but rather damaging the cause for the enforcement of the Shariah in the Malakand region," he said. Speaking his mind to 'The News' during an officially-arranged meeting, Sufi Muhammad vowed to hold a mammoth public meeting in the volatile Swat Valley after his anticipated release and would lead the people in line with the true teachings of Islam.

He said he would leave no stone unturned in restoring peace to the militancy-plagued district of Swat. It was his first interaction with the media since 2001 when he was arrested. "We (TNSM) never intended to pick up arms for the enforcement of Shariah. We can't even think of killing people for the purpose. Peaceful struggle (within the parameters of the Constitution) had been our policy, and I will clearly tell the people to support peace overtures. I will urge people to abandon Fazlullah, who is a rebel," the ill and feeble leader of the TNSM said while sitting on his bed in the heavily-fortified section of the private rooms of the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

He recalled: "I got on board in a helicopter along with military officials (in 1994) and ordered my followers taking position in trenches on mountain tops to vacate their positions as confrontation with the government was not our policy."

Provincial caretaker minister for irrigation, Bakht Baidar, was also present on the occasion. He also apprised the aging cleric of his government's efforts for securing his release. Baidar said he had raised the issue of his release with the president in a recent meeting and was hopeful to secure it soon. He said Sufi would be soon released after removing legal hurdles.

 Local Taliban ask govt to sever ties with US

KHAR, March 30: Local Taliban militants have asked the new government to end relations with the US and enforce Sharia in tribal areas and have warned tribal elders against meeting US officials.

The warning was issued at a public meeting held in Enayet Kalli near Khar on Sunday which was attended by thousands of tribesmen chanting anti-US slogans.

Addressing the meeting, local Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, Maulvi Sher Behadur and Dr Muhammad Ismail welcomed the coalition government’s move to repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

“We hail Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s announcement to repeal the FCR,” Maulvi Faqir said, adding that the government should implement Sharia in the tribal region and sever diplomatic relations with United States.

“Taliban are patriotic people and do not want to fight with their own government. We have waged jihad against America. But the country will suffer as long as Pakistan remains an ally of the US in the ongoing war on terror in the region,” Maulvi Faqir said.

The new government, he said, should not repeat mistakes of the previous government and must change its internal and external policies. He said the militants were ready for talks with the government.

The meeting urged the government to remove all new checkpoints from the area and lift a ban on non-customs paid vehicles.

The Taliban leaders warned elders of ‘consequences’, if they met US officials.

A committee comprising local clerics was set up to resolve disputes among tribesmen. The committee was authorised to prepare a mechanism for eliminating un-Islamic practices like interest on loans, robbery and kidnapping for ransom from the region.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Umar told Dawn by phone that the government should formally enforce Sharia in the tribal belt.

 Girls’ college, school blown up in Darra

DARRA ADAM KHEL, March 30: Suspected militants blew up buildings of a girls’ college and a primary school in Darra Adam Khel tribal region on Saturday night, residents said here on Sunday.

They said that militants planted explosives inside the building of Government Degree College for women in Sheraki village which went off with a big bang, destroying several rooms of the building.

The girls’ primary school was blown up in the Shpinkai Wal locality of the troubled town. The building was completely destroyed. No casualty was, however, reported in both the incidents.

Several schools have been damaged in explosions in the area during the last few weeks.

 Missile destroys pro-govt Taliban leader’s office

TANK: A missile allegedly fired on Sunday noon from across the Pak-Afghan border destroyed the Wana office of Mullah Nazeer, a pro-government Taliban leader in the South Waziristan Agency.

It was the second missile attack on Mullah Nazeer's office in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency (SWA), in a fortnight. The office building was destroyed by the blast but there was no loss of life.

When contacted, officials of the political administration said the explosion was caused by a time-bomb planted by unknown people at the office of Mullah Nazeer. Requesting anonymity, they expressed ignorance about the fact that the blast was caused by a missile fired from Afghanistan. However, local elders and tribesmen told The News that the US-led coalition forces had fired the missile from across the Durand Line.

They recalled that the last Predator strike had killed about 20 people in Shahnawaz Kot on March 16 when at least three missiles hit a compound owned by Noorullah Wazir, a tribal leader. The Pakistan government had lodged a protest with the US and Nato forces following a similar attack on a house in Kaloosha village in South Waziristan on February 28.

Security forces find 58 bodies in Kohat

KOHAT: The security forces have found fifty eight bodies of the tribesmen including 7 women and 6 children who had lost their lives during 6 days sectarian violence in the district, District Nazim Hangu Khan Afzal said on Sunday.

A temporary ceasefire between Mishti and Kachai tribes is being observed here. The District Nazim Hangu, who belongs to Mishi tribe told BBC that the security forces and the rival tribes had started to find the bodies from trenches and fields.

The security forces have found bodies of 28 people of Mishi tribe, he said, adding, 15 people out of 28 were killed during firing at a Jirga. On the other hand, the Mishti tribe has handed over vital Lotang trench of Kachai tribe to security forces. Up to 17 people of Kachai tribe lost their lives in Lotang trench.

CIA says Al Qaeda training ‘western’ terrorists

NEW YORK, March 30: Al Qaeda is training western-looking operatives in tribal areas of Pakistan, making it easier for them to get past security at US airports, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden.

Talking on NBC’s news programme ‘Meet the Press’, Mr Hayden said the most likely point of origin from where terrorists would launch another attack against the US was the sanctuary in tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

He said that the intelligence agency believed Osama bin Laden was in the border region, between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but he was “not operationally involved”.

He “is more of an iconic figure” for the global terrorist movement, Mr Hayden said, adding that killing or capturing him and deputy commander Ayman Al Zawahiri remained a “high priority for the CIA”.

Mr Hayden said that they (Al Qaeda) were training “operatives who look western” and “would be able to come into this country without attracting the attention others might … If there is another terrorist attack, it will originate there.’’

He declined to comment on a Washington Post report that the US had intensified its unilateral air strikes against Al Qaeda targets in the area over fears the country’s new leaders would scale back such operations.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Saturday stressed political rather than military steps to combat a spreading insurgency by radical elements in the border area.

The US is concerned that a softened approach might let Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other groups expand their base in Pakistan and step up attacks on US forces in Afghanistan.

The Bush administration also is concerned about the political sidelining of President Pervez Musharraf, its longtime ally in Pakistan.

While the previous Musharraf-led military government signed peace deals with the tribal leaders in 2006 — a strategy the CIA chief called ‘absolutely disastrous’ since it allowed Al Qaeda to regroup — the government also periodically conducted military strikes and permitted US missile strikes on suspected Al Qaeda targets.

“We have not had a better partner in the war against terrorism than Pakistan” under Musharraf, Mr Hayden said in the NBC interview. When asked if President Musharraf would “still be there” in three months, Hayden said: “I don’t know.”

 Religious schools: boon or bane?

By Zofeen Ebrahim


KARACHI, March 30: Mehboob Ilahi, 15, cannot wait for the next two weeks to get over to leave Pakistan and the Jamia Binoria for good.

Ilahi was brought in by his father, a Pakistan-born US citizen, a little over three years ago at the age of 11 to get enrolled in a madressah for religious education and has not gone back to the US since then.

When Ilahi does return, it will be as a Hafiz, having memorised the Quran in Arabic, no mean feat, but with almost no understanding of what he has memorised. But this is just the beginning for most students (aged between 6 and 15) entering madressah education. “This is just the beginning,” says Maulana Abdul Majeed, who is in-charge of the foreign students, “after this there are as many as 20 subjects that they must master to become a religious scholar.”

“When I first came I cried a lot,” Ilahi admits in his heavily-accented American English. “It was difficult to get used to the pattern of living and the dust bothered me a lot.’’

“I hate everything about Pakistan,” he says without any hesitation or fear. But what he hates most is the “madressah food and being stuck here”. The teenager is like any boarder who is missing home, likening the US to a “colourful world” and terming Pakistan “a black and white TV”.

Illahi, with all his complaints, is among the 600 international students (both girls and boys) studying at the Jamia Binoria.

Hussain Abdul Momin, 28, from Niger, already a Hafiz, has been at the Jamia Binoria for eight years. He wants to become a religious teacher when he goes back after finishing the six-year scholar’s course that he is doing. He came to Pakistan because “the madressah education here is renowned in the Islamic world for its excellence’’.

The same reason is given by 32-year-old Asri Abdel Aziz, a Thai national, who has been there for just under a year. Both boys and girls, with their impeccable manners and soft demeanour, seem far from the popular notion of religious students as intolerant and bigoted.

“It’s a misconception spread by the government itself,” says Mufti Mohammad Naeem, the principal and founder of the Jamia Binoria, which began in 1978 and now has six branches across the metropolis. He dismisses the idea that madressahs had become breeding grounds for radicalism.

“Radicalism should not be seen in isolation. It is a reaction to various factors. The phenomenon of what you call globalisation is actually western imperialism, the consumerist and hedonistic culture that we have emulated from the west, the untold collateral damage caused by the US war on terror… and the state’s role perceived as American lackey have compounded it,” he says.

“It is the government’s dangerous U-turn policy that is causing so much disenchantment and the crises we are in right now,” he goes on, referring to the increase in suicide attacks and bomb blasts. “The same jihadis spawned by the government have gone against their creators,” he said pointing to a spate of attacks over the past year on the police and security forces’ personnel.

There are some 20,000 to 25,000 big and small madressahs, providing education, boarding and meals to 1.6 million children which accounts for about eight per cent of all Pakistani children of school-going age, says Mufti Naeem.

And most of these students are, unlike Ilahi and other foreigners, in the madressahs because they have nowhere else to turn to for an education.

Mufti Naeem was of the view that these religious schools also provided an escape from feudal oppression. He thinks social exclusion and economic deprivation are the reasons why many youngsters are drawn towards religious militancy.

“There are reasons why the poor send their children to madressahs... the state does not provide them educational support,” says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst. At the same time, he says, madressahs have direct as well as indirect links with terrorism.

“The issue of terrorism is not with madressahs themselves but the ideology being taught by some segments of the Deobandi school of thought,” says Zaid Hamid, head of an Islamabad-based think tank.

He, however, said that not all Deobandi madressahs subscribed to this ideology of violence.

“Our sect has been singled out, because our madressahs are in the majority,” justifies Mufti Naeem, who does not deny that there may be some miscreants defaming this particular school of thought.

In the Pashtun belt bordering Afghanistan especially, say analysts, there is neither agriculture nor industry. Most male members have migrated to the cities and send home remittances. For these families madressahs provide a measure of social security. Children are assured of not just regular meals but a semblance of education and dignity.

Hundreds of madressahs were established in and around the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in the 1980s and these had direct links with the anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan.

“A good number of Pakistani madressahs, even from the provinces of Punjab and Sindh, sent their students to help the Taliban in their war against the Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance,” claims Rizvi.

Enrolment in madressahs dropped in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US, and many foreign students left, but the negative propaganda against Islam later helped “ignite among young Muslims, a thirst to know more about their religion with more and more getting enrolled now,” says Mufti Abdullah Hazarvi, who has been associated with the Jamia for over 18 years.

Following the attack, much money and effort went into the madressah reform programmes but with limited success.

In 2005, under extreme pressure from the US, the government began a crackdown on the seminaries to combat home-grown extremism that bred fanaticism.

The military government of Pakistan took many measures, including a clampdown on banned militant Islamic organisations, conducting raids and the confiscation of “inflammatory” material. But the government seemed to stumble over the question of madressah reforms.

As first steps, the government wanted all faith schools to get registered, modernise their curriculum and reveal their financiers.

Till last year 14,656 of the 20,000 or so such schools registered voluntarily with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and all of them have, willy-nilly, modernised their syllabi, or at least they say so.

Mufti Hazarvi is not happy with such interference. “By demanding that we teach other subjects, they are diverting our students from religious studies,” he says.

“Most madressah, back in 2005, were ready to register and many, like ours had already revised our curriculum. The issue came up when most madressahs, including us, resisted our accounts being audited,” says Mufti Naeem.

He recalled last year’s army operation against the Lal Masjid people in Islamabad. “Just when the Ulema had succeeded in negotiating and convincing the mosque administration to surrender, the government attacked them killing many innocent boys and girls in the process.”

At that time, Jamia Binoria was among the many schools that had condemned the radical stance taken by Lal Masjid of enforcing the Sharia on their own. He suggests forming a committee of Ulema, “but only those who are apolitical.”

“Eradicating extremism and terrorism is our common cause,” he says.

He said that if the government was really willing to come up with a solution to this problem, it should support us.

“It’s not too late even now. We need to start a dialogue, listen to their woes and address them. But it may mean curtailment of the American aid and I wonder if our politicians are willing to make the sacrifice.” —Dawn/IPS News Service

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