Peshawar, Pakistan - Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had exploited the religion column issue, and that even Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia did not have the religion column in passports.
Addressing labourers at a ceremony arranged by the All Pakistan Federation of Labour (Durrani Group) to pay tribute to Chicago martyrs, Sheikh Rashid said the MMA had disappointed the people who voted it to power. He accused the religious alliance of ignoring the public’s problems and fanning “non-issues’ to play with their emotions. “Islam is our religion, our identity and our way of life but those who exploit Islam for their vested interests are not capable of running the state’s affairs,” he said.
Sheikh Rashid asked labourers to adopt negotiations instead of violence for the resolution of their problems. “During my political carrier I have learnt that resorting to violence does not solve any problem,” he said. The minister urged labourers to unite as “the rich had always used the poor against the poor”.
The minister said that no religious or political party had done anything to improve the condition of people in NWFP. “Peoples’ representatives should work to check inflation and unemployment but they are engaged in ‘unnecessary activities’, putting aside peoples’ problems,” he said.
He said that General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to provide logistic support to the United States against Afghanistan was right, as there was no alternative. “If MMA leaders think that they had an alternative, they should have presented it instead of agitating,” he said. He said that the US was facing difficulties in Iraq because of its wrong policies. He said that before attacking any country, one should consider his own power. “Pakistan, along with China, the Non-Aligned Movement and the UN, persuaded the US against attacking Iraq, but it paid no heed to it,” he said.
He said that MMA leaders were preaching Jihad but they did not send their own children for the “sacred cause”. He said that such policies had made mosques and churches unsafe in the country.
He said that a movement should be started to educate Peshawar’s people so that no political party or religious group could deceive them in the future.
The minister said that the government had issued licenses to 15 satellite channels and parliament would approve licenses to another 37 channels in the next session. “Two Pakistani Pashto satellite channels are now being watched in Afghanistan which is a good sign,” he said. He also asked the media to highlight the problems of labourers.