(AKI) - The leader of Pakistan's ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), has said that the standoff between the government and the radical Islamabad mosque, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), has been resolved amicably. In an interview with Pakistani television channel Geo TV, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain the administration at Lal Masjid had agreed to discontinue their self-proclaimed Sharia or Islamic court while the female students at the affiliated madrassa or Islamic seminary, Jamia Hafsa, will continue to occupy the children's library in the capital until the reconstruction of mosques that had been torn down for being unauthorised.I think the Frenchies look at the Paks and roll their eyes at the way they surrender to the turbans at the least excuse.
In the interview, Shujaat said that Pakistani prime minister Shaukat Aziz had told him to resolve the dispute and that he had succeeded in getting the clerics of the Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, to agree to nine out of ten points. The clerics, who are also brothers, agreed to remove extremist signs from Jamia Hafsa madrassa and the suspension of the self-established Sharia court, which they had insisted was necesssary to curb "vulgar" activities. They also agreement that the men armed with sticks around the mosque and madrassa would be displaced and that only students would come to the madrassa to study. At the same time, they also agreed that the blocked roads leading to the mosque and the madrassa would be opened.
| Maulana Abdul Aziz said that it had been decided that the demolished mosques would be rebuilt in first phase while Sharia would be imposed in the second phase. |
Also interviewed by Geo TV, was the main cleric of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who said that there was an agreement reached and that it had been decided during the talks with Shujaat that the demolished mosques would be rebuilt in first phase while Sharia or Islamic law would be imposed in the country in the second phase.
The clerics went on to say that the madrassa students would continue to occupy the library until the matter is resolved. However he said that the movements of the students would not be blocked.