Daily Times

LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that the US president had insulted the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war against terrorism.

The chief minister expressed these views while addressing a convention of ulema belonging to all schools of thought at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

He said ulema should play their role in dealing with the challenges facing Pakistan by teaching the message of Holy Quran and sunnah. He said the today’s spiritual gathering from across Pakistan and the world will spread the message of unity and harmony, and promote religious harmony and tolerance.

He said that every Muslim was ready to sacrifice their lives for the respect of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the message of the life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) was to serve orphans, widows and distressed humanity. He said Holy Prophet (PBUH) had given the message of forgiveness and patience.

He said unfortunately the disparity of the rich and the poor was increasing in our society and due to the loot of the natural resources the poor were becoming poorer and distressed humanity was going through a bad situation.

“The US president in his tweet has taunted 21 crore people of Pakistan and he has insulted our national integrity by calling Pakistan liar and conspirator. The people of Pakistan have given exemplary sacrifices not only for Pakistan, but for the whole country and the US president has insulted our sacrifices. The army, police and every segment of Pakistan has given historic sacrifices in the war against terrorism. This irritating statement has put price tag of dollars and pounds on our sacrifices. Those who are weighing thousands of sacrifices for dollars should know that our proud nation will fall these plots,” he said.

He said that in the current situation, unholy plots were being hatched to destroy the national unity and in these plots some foreign forces also have their role.

“On the one hand foreigners are insulting us, while on the other hand, the politics of sit-ins are strengthening these nefarious acts. We have rendered sacrifices not for dollars but for peace in Pakistan and the whole world but we are being taunted. Political, judicial and military leadership of the country should sit together and decide that whether we have to live a respectful or a disrespectful life. If we do not sit together today and do not decide to change the destiny of the country then we will be taunted like this till the doomsday,” he said.

He said the US president had asked about details of the 33 billion dollars. “We will provide them, but I want to make it clear that this was the coalition support program that was meant for joint efforts for the elimination of terrorism,” he said.

Addressing the convention, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said the belief in the finality of Prophethood (PBUH) was the basic part of our religion and those who did not believe in the finality of the Prophethood (PBUH) were considered expelled from the religion. “They are non-Muslims and are creating fitna in the religion.

Those who participated in the convention include Allama Ghulam Mohammad Sialvi, Maulana Abdul Wahab Ropri, Allama Muhammad Hussain Akbar, Maulana Muhammad Amjad Khan, Allama Syed Riaz Hussain Rizvi Najafi, Dr Raghib Hussain Naeemi, Pir Mahfuz Ahmed Mashadi, Maulana Muhibullah Noori, Inamul Haq Shah, Hafiz Asad Obaid Al-Azhari, Maulana Muhammad Abdul Mateen, Pir Chiraghuddin Shah, Maulana Muhammad Naeem Butt, Mian Mehmood Abbas, Syed Atiqur Rehman, Maulan Irfan Ullah Sinai, Maulana Muhammad Yasin Rahi, Prof Abdul Rehman Shariq, Shafqat Hussain Malik, Maulana Syed Sibte Haider Sabzwari, Syed Noor Bahadur Shah, Allam Rashid Turabi and Mualana Afzal Haidri.

Published in Daily Times, December 7^th 2017.