MANSEHRA: The religious scholars here on Wednesday threatened to launch a countrywide protest against what they called the plan of government to impose restrictions on seminaries in the name of national security policy.

`Seminaries are only imparting religious and contemporary education to students.

We will not allow the government to curb independence of seminaries in the name of national security policy,` Mufti Kifayatullah told `Madaris Deenia Convention` here on Tuesday.

According to the organisers, administrators of more than 400 seminaries attended the convention and demanded of the government to remove the clauses, dealing with seminaries, from the proposed national security policy.Former senator Hidayatullah Shah, Maulana Saeed Abdullah, Maulana Faizul Bari, Maulana Nasir Mehmood and Maulana Israel Garangi spoke on the occasion.

Mufti Kifayatullah said that government didn`t take them into confidence before finalising the national security policy.

`How we can tolerate government`s interference in the matters of seminaries, which are only a source of spreading Islamic education. The government is wants to appease America and Europe for its own benefits, he alleged.

Mufti Kifayatullah said that neither Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif nor Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan were sincere with the seminaries.

`Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have joined hands to crush religions forces in the country but we want to make it clear to them that we will not allow them to turn thecountry into a secular state,` he said.

He said that protest demonstrations would held in big cities from March 20.

The first protest meeting would be held in Multan on March 20, Mufti Kifayatullah said, adding that the second meeting would be held in Karachi on March 23.

He said that a protest meeting would be held in Quetta on March 25, in Peshawar on March 27, in Muzaffarabad on March 31 and in Islamabad on April 3.

He said that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman and JUI-S emir Maulana Samiul Haq would also attend the protest meetings.

Speaking on the occasion, Hidayatullah Shah said that the convention was an eye opener for the government. He said that religious parties would not allow government to amend Islamic clauses in 1973 Constitution.

Mr Shah said that the country was created in the name of Islam and nobody wouldbe allowed to use it for vested interests of other powers. He said that both federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments were following Zionist agenda but religious parties would restrict them.

PROJECTS: The authorities held bidding to award contracts of 20 projects in the district. Assistant Commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf secretary Shahzada Qamarzeb were also present on the occasion.

The infrastructure officer of district council, Ziauddin, told the contactors that the tendering process was kept open to ensure transparency. The contacts of the projects were awarded to the lowest bidders.

Dr Qasim said on the occasion that district administration was trying its level best to make every department free of corruption.The contactors should also extend their support to the administration in that regard, he added.