Observer Report
Islamabad
President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the religious scholars particularly the prayer leaders to play their vibrant role in sensitizing the masses and guide them on social issues taking advantage of their proximity to the people and grasp on the religious knowledge. Addressing the opening session of a brainstorming moot hosted at the Aiwan-e-Sadr to get input from the religious scholars on the subjects of Clean and Green Pakistan, education, health, law and fake news, the president said being rich in religious knowledge, the Ulema had a crucial role to play for public guidance.
The event was attended by Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Nurul Haq Qadri, Minister for Federal Education & Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood, Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information & Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, SAPM on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Dr Qibla Ayaz and a large number of religious scholars hailing from different schools of thought. Citing the prevalence of hepatitis among nine percent of population, the president urged the Ulema to guide public on the maintenance of health and hygiene what had also been declared as half of the faith.
Around 40 percent of the children were faced with malnutrition, so it was the duty of the clerics to promote breastfeeding to ensure the health of both the mother and child, said the president. Referring to the Islamic teachings against wastage of water and environmental degradation, the president said the public needed to be urged to adopt healthy lifestyle.
The president also urged the mosque’s role for protection of women’s inheritance right that had been discussed in the Holy Quran in detail but due to certain cultural values, the women were deprived of their right. Similarly, he said the phenomenon of fake news could destroy a society therefore the scholars should raise voice and preach against such practices which had also been strongly forbidden by the Holy Quran and Hadith.
He said the fake news was a weapon of the weapon of mass destruction and had badly affected the countries and almost 84 percent of news content spread amid elections in India was fake and baseless. He said the Ulema were supposed to reform the society and uplift the nation which was already on the course of development. You are the guardians of Islam and the mosques played a central role in socializing, promotion of education and propagation of Islamic teachings and social issues, said the president.
In his address, Pir Nurul Haq Qadri said the brainstorming session would lead to the compilation of the recommendations by the religious scholars and then the formation of a national action plan on Ulema’s reformative role. He said in this era of social media, the people needed to be taught on the destructive impacts of the fake news for the state as well as the individuals. He said the ministry’s role was to bridge the gap between the government and the Ulema.
