Clerics pass resolution to guide Karzai

By Iqbal Khattak

KABUL: Clerics from different parts of Afghanistan on Wednesday passed a 20-point resolution setting up guidelines for Hamid Karzai’s government.

The meeting on Wednesday decided to form a religious council to be headed by the conservatives-led Supreme Court, the first of its kind since the Taliban government’s collapse in late 2001. The purpose is to include clerics in the government’s efforts to ensure the stability and reconstruction of the country.

The resolution also warned that the media would be punished if it published anything un-Islamic.

Afghan Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Amin Nasirya also requested the New Delhi government build places of worship for Hindus.

President Hamid Karzai, in his speech, not only praised the ex-Taliban movement founders but also talked about the new constitution and declared that they were fighting the Taliban whom he described as “foreigners” who wanted the “destruction of Afghanistan.” “Our struggle is just against those Taliban who are enemy of the Afghanis,” Mr Karzai added.

The delegation members, most of whom belonged to former mujahideen groups – the Jamiat-e-Islami of Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, Ittehad-e-Islami of Abdur Rab Rasool Sayyaf, Harkat-e-Islami Afghanistan of late Muhammad Nabi Mohammadi and other shia leaders – supported women’s education and participation in politics, but insisted that women observe the Islamic code of life.

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