Arakan News Agency
Pakistan’s hard-line Islamic parties are piling huge pressure on Islamabad to act tough on the Rohingya issue.
One leading party, Jamaat-e-Islami has asked the Nawaz Sharif government to summon the Myanmar ambassador in Islamabad and lodge a strong protest against the ‘systematic ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya Muslims.
Several other similar parties have supported the move.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Ameer SirajulHuq, who is a member of the country’s Senate, recently appealed to all Islamic countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to push to summon a special session of the UN general assembly to discuss the Rohingya issue.
Huq has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to send emissaries to all Muslim countries to raise the issue of persecution of Kashmiri Muslims in India and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Huq has also lashed out at the West and the UN for its ‘ double standards’ in overlooking the Kashmir and Rohingya issues and asked the OIC to step up efforts to protect the Kashmiris in India and the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
“Myanmar is forcing the Rohingyas to renounce Islam, its army is perpetrating horrible atrocities on them, Muslims across the world must react and raise their voice,” Huq told Pakistan media recently.
But the Nawaz Sharif government is being cautious because it risks losing out on a contract for selling JF-17 Thunder jet fighters to the Myanmar military.
Myanmar has ordered 16 JF-17 fighters from Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in a half a billion dollar deal.
