Daily Times

Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Thursday said the advanced and financially influential countries should support the underdeveloped countries with less resources in order to cope with the challenges arising from the climate change.

It was high time to recognize the reality of climate change, as flash floods in Pakistan had inundated 70 percent area of the country, which had caused more than $30 billion loss to the national economy, he said in an exclusive talk with APP following the ‘World Fatwa Conference’ in Cairo, Egypt.

Ashrafi who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, said Islam stressed on taking advantage from conventional knowledge and use of modern sciences for water conservation and tree plantation.

He said the debates and discussions between Islamic scholars on the conventional issues were important for resolving the problems of the present age.

Ashrafi said the Islamic scholars had invited the leaders of all the religions to move forward to resolve the conventional problems of the world.

The Makkah Declaration was result of the continued efforts on part of the Muslim World League and similarly the ‘Charter of Akhuwat-e-Insania’ was the hallmark of Sheikh Al-Azhar, and ‘Paigham-e-Pakistan’ was a joint initiative of Ulema and Mashaykh of Pakistan for promoting unity and consensus in view of interfaith dialogue, he maintained.

He said Islam was guarantor of survival and security of the humanity, and it taught us the promotion of peace, affection, and tolerance. In this scenario, it was necessary that the leadership of all religions and religious sects should raise awareness about challenges of the climate change, he added.

He also informed that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif would participate in the conference in Sharm-Al-Sheikh and shed the light on the losses incurred by the recent monsoon rains and flash floods in Pakistan.

“Pakistan alone cannot deal with the catastrophic situation caused by floods in the country,” he said urging international organizations and Islamic world to cooperate with Pakistan in this trying time.

“We are grateful for the cooperation of the international bodies and Islamic world, but it is not sufficient enough to cope with the calamity,” he said adding the problems were increasing many folds with every passing day as mercury was dropping and people were forced to live under the open sky in the winter season.

Seeking world community’s help to meet this national disaster, Ashrafi informed that the flood-affected people of Pakistan were also facing water related diseases.

The World Fatwa Conference, titled ‘Fatwa and Sustainable Development Goals’ was held under the aegis of Egypt’s Dar-Al-Ifta in Cairo, and attended by the delegates of more than 100 countries from all over the world including Mufti-e-Azam Egypt and Mufti-e-Azam Palestine.