Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Wednesday said Pakistan neither could afford religious disharmony, nor political instability.
Addressing a press conference, he said Pakistan was passing through a critical phase and it was in dire need of love, peace and unity.
Ashrafi, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), urged the religious and political leaderships to avoid extremist attitudes and adopt moderate approaches in order to bring the country out of prevailing crisis.
“We should move ahead with unity as it is in the favor of Pakistan’s economic and political conditions,” he added.
He said undue criticism on national institutions including judiciary, security agencies and foreign affairs ministry make them controversial and damage their credibility globally.
Ashrafi categorically stated that Pakistan Army had no role in country’s politics and by-election results in Punjab were its evidence.
On the issue of cipher, Ashrafi said it should be the end of blame game as how one could hide such an important document from the chief executive of the country while the then Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had already admitted that they themselves distributed the cipher to various state institutions.
He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the face of the country which had to portray its soft image in the comity of nations. He proposed to put aside our personal grudges which were tarnishing the integrity of the country world over.
Keeping in view the present circumstances, there was a dire need of political stability and dialogue, he said and added that the political instability was one of its main factors causing crisis in the country. PM representative said the PUC had issued code of conduct to keep law and order in Muharram-ul-Haram after a thorough consultation with the leadership of various schools of thought.
The PUC was establishing contact centers in Lahore and Islamabad and nobody would be given permission to degrade anyone’s sacred personalities, he said. If someone found involved in sectarian activities particularly in the holy month of Muharram, the law would take its course, he maintained.
He urged the religious leaders to ensure implementation on the Paigham-e-Pakistan protocols to avert any untoward situation.
