ISLAMABAD/MULTAN: Days after the central and provincial leadership of the Pakistan Ulema Council reposed their confidence in Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi by voting him in as the chairman, PUC’s Sahibzadah Zahid Mehmood Qasmi, accompanied by some senior central and provincial leaders, on Monday announced Mr Ashrafi’s removal from the PUC and its affiliate bodies.

Mr Qasmi, a member of the Islamic Ideology Council, claimed that he was the new leader of the PUC.

Mr Ashrafi, a ‘moderate’ cleric, was accused of acting on a foreign agenda and taking a liberal stance on several points of national importance. He was earlier voted in as the chairman of the body at a meeting held on Feb 18. The meeting had also sent Mr Qasmi a show-cause notice for violating the party line by getting close to proscribed organisations and extremist groups.

On Monday, PUC’s top leadership, comprising mainly clerics belonging to the Deobandi school of thought, joined Mr Qasmi at a press conference in Islamabad to announce Mr Ashrafi’s ouster from the organisation.

They accused Mr Ashrafi of “working on a foreign agenda” by becoming a beneficiary of “foreign funding” through some NGOs. They also demanded that the government take notice of these NGOs attacking the security and unity of the country.

The new PUC leadership announced that they had obtained certain facts and evidence that pointed towards Mr Ashrafi, who had allegedly forged contacts with foreign powers working to harm Islam and the PUC’s constitution.

Mr Qasmi pointed out that the PUC’s constitution stated that the council would not act like a secret movement.

“[However,] the former chairman used to decide internal and external matters in an autonomous [fashion] and the opinions of members of the Shura were not incorporated,” he alleged.

Last month, some of the PUC leaders had expressed concerns over Mr Ashrafi’s “liberal” inclination and forwarded several queries to him.

As these differences grew deeper, a handful of senior leaders tried to remove him from the organisation at a meeting held at Jamia Qasmia in Faisalabad, last week. As news of this ‘ouster’ spread throughout the organisation, several PUC office-bearers took their protest onto social media, condemning the decision to remove Mr Ashrafi.

At Monday’s press conference, the PUC’s leaders continued to insist that the PUC’s central executive body (Majlis-i-shura) and the members’ body (Majlis-i-amoomi) had arrived at the decision to remove Mr Ashrafi as the head of the organisation.

“After [receiving] evidence of secret foreign contracts signed by Mr Ashrafi, the council has unanimously dismissed him from chairmanship after cancelling his basic membership of the Pakistan Ulema Council and its sub organisations — the Wifaqul Masajid Pakistan, Ilm-o-Aman Foundation and Tahaffuz-i-Madaris-i-Deeniya,” the central patron in chief of PUC, Maulana M. Rafiq Jami, said.

He stressed that the PUC had not split up rather only one person had been expelled from it.

On the other hand, Mr Ashrafi chose to remain aloof and, while speaking to reporters in Multan, announced that the PUC will hold its Pegham-i-Islam conference, to bring together over 5,000 religious scholars, in Islamabad from April 12.

At the press conference in the federal capital, however, the PUC’s Majli-i-shura announced that it had postponed The Message of Islam Conference, scheduled to be held on April 12 at the Convention Centre in Islamabad. A Tahaffuz-i-Namoos Risalat Conference would also be called shortly in Islamabad, they said.

The leaders also announced that the PUC would help make the three-day Millennium World Congregation by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) a success.

Talking to reporters in Multan, Mr Ashrafi brushed aside the announcement made at the press conference and termed it a conspiracy against him by “extremists”. He claimed that he was targeted because of his advocacy work for the rights of ordinary citizens, especially the marginalised.

He announced his support for the reinstatement of military courts and stressed that several judges had received threatening calls. “Military courts should be established to strengthen the judicial system,” he said.

He, too, pointed at the involvement of “foreign powers” trying to destabilise the country and announced his complete support for Operation Raddul Fasaad. The cleric criticised the political leadership for failing to play a strong role in implementing the National Action Plan.

“We are not a part of the government and our parliament is the Majlis-i-shura which has expressed its confidence in me,” he said.

Mr Ashrafi announced that the PUC would contest the upcoming general elections and a meeting would be held in this regard on March 8 in Islamabad. “There is a need for international ideological unity and we are contacting religious scholars including Imam-i-Kaba across the world in this regard.”

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017