President stresses Ulema’s vibrant role for masses sensitization on social issues

ISLAMABAD, Mar 2 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi Monday urged the religious scholars particularly the prayer leaders to play their vibrant role to sensitize and guide the masses on social issues pervading the country, taking advantage of their proximity to the people and grasp on the religious knowledge.

Addressing the opening session of a brainstorming session hosted by the Aiwan-e-Sadr to get input from the religious scholars on the subjects of Clean and Green Pakistan, education, health, law and fake news, the president said being rich with religious knowledge, the Ulema had a crucial role to play for public guidance.

The event was attended by Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Nurul Haq Qadri, Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood, Advisor to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, SAPM on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology Dr Qibla Ayaz and large number of religious scholars hailing from different schools of thought.

Citing the prevalence of hepatitis among nine percent of population, the president urged the Ulema to guide public on the maintenance of health what had also been declared as half of the faith.

He said around 40 percent of the children were faced with malnutrition, so it was the duty of the clerics to promote breastfeeding to ensure the health of both the mother and child.
Referring to the Islamic teachings against the wastage of water and environmental degradation, he said the public needed to be urged to adopt healthy lifestyle.

The president also urged the mosque’s role for protection of women’s inheritance right that had been discussed in the Holy Quran in detail but due to certain cultural values, the women were deprived of their right.

Similarly, he said the phenomenon of fake news could destroy a society therefore the scholars should preach against such practices which had also been strongly forbidden by the Holy Quran and Hadith.

He said the fake news of the weapon of mass destruction had badly affected the countries and almost 84 percent of news content spread amid elections in India was fake.
He said the Ulema were supposed to reform the society and uplift the nation which was already on the course of development.

He said the Ulema were the guardian of Islam and the mosques played a central role in socializing, promotion of education, and propagation of Islamic teachings and social issues.

In his address, Pir Nurul Haq Qadri said the brainstorming session would lead to the compilation of the recommendations by the religious scholars and then the formation of a national action plan on Ulema’s reformative role.

He said in this era of social media, the people needed to be taught on the destructive impacts of the fake news for the state as well as the individuals.  He said the ministry’s role was to bridge the gulf between the government and the Ulema.

The minister following the first session, such events would be held at provincial level to be attended by the chief ministers and governors and at the federal level to be attended by the prime minister to devolve this message to the grassroots level.

Chairman of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Dr Qibal Ayaz said the Ulema’s input on the current challenges including fake news, dispute resolution, women inheritance right, children education and deforestation was inevitable.

He said the fake news begot social destruction besides affecting the national economy.
He said the issues like polio and coronavirus also required the clerics’ role, though the government had already taken difficult but revolutionary decisions in that regard.

Special Assistant to the PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said it was essential to make the media play a responsible role and make it a part of the national security strategy.

She said the successful implementation of the government’s economic roadmap was linked with the stability in the country and that the interests of the state should be above all and must be respected by everyone.

She said the government needed Ulema’s role to portray a true picture and discourage the fake news because instinctively, the humans were easily attracted towards the false but it always hurt the national narrative.

She hoped that the declaration of the session would reflect the strategy to highlight the clerics’ role to address the modern day challenges which would ultimately strengthen the country besides helping the government to devise a roadmap accordingly.

Parliamentary Secretary on Law Malaika Bukhari highlighted the legislation made by the government to reform the country’s legal system and remove discrimination between the rich and poor.

She said under new laws, the families would get the succession certificate within 15 days and the women would be able to get their due inheritance right. Besides under Zainab Alert Bill, the government had introduced up to 10 years imprisonment for assaulting the children and an authority would be established to maintain a data of kidnapped or missing children.

Advisor on Environment, Malik Amin Aslam apprised the audience on the government’s initiatives to address the challenges of climate change including 10 billion tree tsunami, gradual ban on plastic bags, clean and green index for cities, recharge Pakistan program and introduction of electric car to reduce emission and the oil import bill.

Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood said the government had finalized the uniform curriculum for the primary level that would be implemented across the country in all government and private schools as well as the seminaries.

He said the seminaries’ body had also agreed to introduce contemporary education in their organizations.

Moreover, the government would also introduce adults literacy program to enhance the literacy rate that had been stagnant at around 62 percent so far.

SAPM on Health Dr Zafar Mirza presented an outlook of the country’s health sector with alarming prevalence of hepatitis, TB, neo-natal deaths and dramatically increasing population rate.

He said the Ulema were supposed to play their role on polio eradication, communicable diseases, drugs, dental and mental health and stigmas attached to certain diseases.