Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Qasim Zia said on Friday that the Pakistan PeopleÂ’s Party (PPP), after coming to power, would ban all madrassas involved in terrorism. He told reporters at his assembly chamber that giving military training to students was a conspiracy against the state and that the PPP would take stern action against seminaries imparting such training to their students. The PPP wanted legal action against the seminaries involved in spreading sectarianism and extremism, he added.He said Lal Masjid clerics should be given exemplary punishments for abducting citizens as well as law enforcement personnel and challenging the governmentÂ’s writ. The clerics had used innocent students first to carry out their heinous acts and then as a human shield, he added.
Qasim said the delay in the Lal Masjid operation was the government’s failure and that it could have taken timely action to avoid bloodshed in the capital. “Supporting the Lal Masjid operation does not mean that the PPP is supporting President General Pervez Musharraf.”
Commenting on recent acquittal of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari from a Rawalpindi accountability court, he said it was part of a fair trial and that there was no deal between the PPP and the government.