JUI-F's Azadi March: Mufti Naeem against participation of seminary students

Opposing the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) Azadi March, Jamia Binoria Aalimiyah chief Mufti Muhammad Naeem on Saturday said that seminaries' students should not be used for political gains.

Talking to a two-member delegation comprising Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, who called on him at his office in Jamia Binoria, Mufti Naeem said that seminaries should not be used for politics.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that those types of activities would put negative impacts on seminaries and would hurt the image of Madrasssas in the world.

Mufti Naeem urged the seminaries to restrain their students from participating in the march. Earlier on October 14, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had failed to enlist the support of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) for his upcoming Azadi March.

The JUI-F chief had telephoned JI leader Liaquat Baloch to discuss the anti-government march and sought the latter's support for the purpose.

Speaking to a private television channel, Baloch had said every political party had its own agenda. The JI had already been engaged in a protest campaign against Indian repression against Kashmiris in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he had added.