Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that National Action Plan (NAP) is the most important agenda of Pakistan and we are gradually implementing this program in all twenty areas which were agreed through a national consensus among the national leadership of the country.
According to a statement issued by the office of the Press Secretary of Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Nawaz was chairing a high level meeting with representative Ulemas (religious scholars) of Tanzeem Ittehad-ul-Madaris which is a conglomerate of five organizations of Madaris (Religious schools), representing major schools of thought.
The Prime Minister said that for meaningful implementation of National Action Plan, consultation with management and administration of madaris organizations was necessary therefore he held meeting with Madaris management to take them on board with regard to moving forward on implementation of National Action Plan.
The Prime Minister said that Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif is also here today in the meeting to be part of this consultation.
The Prime Minister expressed that the nation will jointly eliminate terrorism from its polity and the war being fought in North Waziristan has achieved success and terrorists’ back has been broken.
The Prime Minister further said that all stakeholders against terrorism should cooperate with each other and the government on its part will extend full cooperation to Tanzeem-e- Ittehad-ul-Madaris.
The Prime Minister expressed the resolve to pursue the National Action Plan apart from politics and in the larger national interest.
The Prime Minister invited the Ulema to express their views and at the end of the meeting added that all participants are on the same page and want harmony in the country.
The Prime Minister said that the government understands the importance of Madariss and their positive role in the society and would like them to do better by fulfilling their obligations to the society.
The Prime Minister assured the Ulema that government is ready to help them for introducing reforms in the education system of madaris. The Prime Minister said that madaris might play their role in discouraging sectarianism and terrorism and a campaign to eliminate such tendencies should be launched by developing a counter narrative. The Ulaema of Tanzeem Ittehad-ul-Madaris assured unconditional support to National Action Plan and said that they were ready to extend any cooperation to the government in this regard.
Moulanan Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Moulana Muhammad Hanif Jalandhry, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, Sahibzada Abdul Mustafa Hazarvi, Professor Sajid Mir, Moulana Yasin Zafar, Moulana Abdul Malik, Dr. Moulana Atta-ur-Rehman, Moulana Syed Qazi Niaz Hussain Naqvi, and Dr. Syed Muhammad Najfi participated in the meeting.
The meeting was attended by Ch. Nisar Ali Khan, Minister for Interior; Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Minister for Religious Affairs and Mr. Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman, Minister of State for Education. Senior officers of the concerned Ministries were also part of the meeting.
