LAHORE: The Pakistan Ulema Council on Sunday held a conference to show solidarity with the people of Palestine facing Israeli aggression.

Participated by religious leaders of Muslims and non-Muslims and political parties representatives, the moot demanded the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of Islamic Counties (OIC) to play their role for stopping Israeli aggression in Gaza and announced observing solidarity day for Palestinians on Friday while special prayers would be held in churches for the people of Palestine across the country on Sunday.

Held under the chairmanship of Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, the conference was also addressed by Palestinian ambassador Waleed Abu Ali who lamented that the Muslim rulers were more concerned about football world cup than martyrdom of Palestinian children.

The moot through a resolution demanded that Pakistan should observe at least one-day official mourning on martyrdom of Palestinians in Israeli aggression and that it should make efforts for imposition of sanctions on Israel for the violations of human rights. It also demanded institution of a case against Israeli leadership under war crimes.

Those who spoke on the occasion included PML-N’s Pervaiz Malik, PPP’s Naveed Chaudhry, JUI-F’s Maulana Amjad and Riaz Durrani, JUI-S’s Maulana Asim Makhdoom, Sunni Ittehad Council’s Pir Mehfooz Mushhadi, Lahore Bishop Irfan Jameel, Allama Husain Akbar, Maulana Abdul Kabeer Azad and Hindu community’s representative J.J.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2014