By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East and Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi Saturday said sectarianism had caused death and destruction in the society.
Addressing the 4th Paigham-e-Pakistan training of trainers’ workshop for religious leaders and faculty members of the International Islamic University, Islamabad, he lamented that there were a number of unfolded stories of sectarian-extremism which had destroyed many families since 1980 in the country.
Ashrafi said Paigham-e-Pakistan was the crux of all efforts made during the last four decades for religious harmony in the country.
He said after Resolution of Pakistan, it was the most important document which had the solution of all persistent issues being faced by various segments of the society.
He said to achieve this milestone, he had put his life at stake many a time adding seven murder attempts had been made on him so far in which five of them were made by the people of his own school of thought.
He said speaking and making efforts for religious harmony particularly in a society where the level of tolerance was zero, was a quite difficult task.
Ashrafi pledged to continue his journey towards love, peace and intersect and interfaith harmony till the last breath of his life.
He, with tearful eyes, said that he could not come out of mental agony of Peshawar tragedy in which a minor boy was severely injured without knowing his fault. He said the shocking news of a seven-day-old baby girl who shot dead by his father in Mianwali and another 22-day-old found with throat slit in Karachi had made him further dejected.
He said every individual including Ulema and Mashaikh had to play their role to stop such rising inhuman acts in the society.
