LAHORE: The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) said on Monday that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a political press release and the army has no right to interfere in matters of politics.
Speaking to media representatives after a meeting of the party’s Majlis-i-Shura (Advisory Council) in Lahore, the JI General Secretary Liaquat Baloch said that his party has always rendered sacrifices to safeguard ideological as well as geographical boundaries of the country and has always acknowledged Pakistan Army’s sacrifices of military martyrs.
In a statement issued last week, the JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan declared the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in US missile strike as ‘martyrdom’, stating that Pakistan army soldiers who have rendered sacrifices in the ongoing fight could not be called ‘martyrs’ for their cooperation with the US.
The statement drew strong ire of the army which asked him to tender unconditional apology. Moreover, various political parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) condemned the JI’s remarks urging him to take his words back.
The ISPR in a statement condemned the remarks as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘misleading’, saying that declaring the dead terrorists as shaheeds is insult of the shahadat of thousands of innocent Pakistanis and soldiers of Pakistan’s armed forces.
