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Jamia Hafsa issue:

Musharraf offers talks to Mullahs

* President says extremists trying to impose own version of Islam
* Assemblies will complete term
* CM, PM refute govt-PPP deal

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has invited clerics to talks to resolve the issue of extremist madrassas in Islamabad that have threatened suicide bombings if the government acts against them.

The president, addressing a public meeting in Taxila, said that the administration of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa wanted to impose their own brand of Islam in the country. “They are illiterate people. They always talk about killing and taking lives. This is not Islam. Let’s sit and talk,” Gen Musharraf he said.

He said the government could take action against the mosque and madrassa at any time, but it wanted to resolve the issue amicably. “I have not been trained to get scared. I was trained to fight. These few thousand girls are misguided. These misguided women wish to run the government, though they know nothing … We don’t want to kill them. We want to solve this issue with wisdom.”

The president said he would resist pressure from some quarters to dissolve parliament, and vowed that the assemblies would complete their constitutional term. “We have brought true democracy. Some people want me to dissolve the assemblies, but this will not happen. Those in the government will win the next election,” he said.

About the current judicial crisis, Gen Musharraf defended his sending of a reference against the chief justice to the Supreme Judicial Council, saying, “I have taken the right step and I will inform the nation later. Whatever decision the Supreme Judicial Council will take will be acceptable to us.”

Unlike the president, who kept mum about rumours of covert government-PPP negotiations, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi refuted any possibility of a deal with the PPP.

The president announced a Rs 50 million development package for the Tehsil Municipal Administration of Taxila, provision of gas to all villages of the tehsil, and establishment of a medical college at Chakri and a girls degree college. Two colleges in the area will be given degree status.

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