LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq has warned that the North Waziristan military operation would result in a colossal human tragedy, saying that it was the duty of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take the nation and its leadership into confidence inside and outside the Parliament before taking such a vital decision regarding the national security.
If the government took unilateral decisions to use force on such a massive scale then the responsibility of future results would also rest on its shoulders, he said while talking to media after a high-level meeting of JI office-bearers at Mansoorah on Monday.
Sirajul Haq said the use of force, violence and weapons was against the wisdom and sanity, whether by the state or non-state elements. He expressed sorrow that the PML-N government had refrained from taking sincere measures for the success of peace negotiations with the Taliban which was mandated by the All Parties Conference.
He said military operations had been continuously made in the tribal areas since 2004 but they had resulted into no success and had been creating more problems for the nation with every passing day. He said the JI wanted the democracy to succeed and see that the present government completed its term, but it was regrettable that the government had not fulfilled its promises in the manifesto and its responsibilities towards the nation.
The JI chief warned that fresh military operation would displace thousands of tribal people and if they moved to Afghanistan they could be used against the country by several anti-Pakistan elements there. He also appealed to the militant elements in tribal region and elsewhere in the country to shun forcing their cause through weapons and instead join national mainstream for success of their cause.
Our Bannu correspondent adds: Demanding proper arrangements for the displaced families, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial chief and member Taliban-nominated talks committee Prof Muhammad Ibrahim on Monday said the civilian government succumbed to the pressure and launched a full-scale offensive against militants in North Waziristan.
Talking to journalists at the district office of the JI here, he said: “The government should have learnt a lesson from the operations carried out in the last decade.”The JI leader said only civilian people would suffer due to the military operation. “Dispossessing millions of people of their homes for a handful of people is not a wise thing,” he said.
He urged the government to make necessary arrangements for the families fleeing the area due to the military operation.Muhammad Ibrahim said the government should have evacuated and shifted the civilians to a safer place before launching the action.