Body constituted to work for overcoming sectarian violence
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Senate committee for religious affairs has taken serious note of the sectarian violence in Parachinar and has constituted a 25-member committee to work out measures to overcome the situation.
Committee will hold its first meeting on December 10 in Peshawar with a task to evolve suggestions to bring improvement in the situation besides ensuring lasting peace in the area.
Senate committee for religious affairs met here Tuesday in parliament house under senator Maulana Sami ul Haq which was attended by several senators, representatives of minister for religious affairs, interior and provincial government and FATA administration.
Committee will comprise 10 Ulema each from both the sides, 5 members to be nominated by senate committee and leading Ulema from Karram agency.
Speaking on the occasion members of committee expressed their resolve to stamp out menace of sectarianism. Those pitting Muslims against each other in the name of Shia, Sunni, Brelvi , Devbandi are enemies of Muslims, they remarked.
Swat situation also came under discussion in the meeting. The committee noted that situation had aggravated in the perspective of presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. Establishment of government writ is imperative but use of force should be avoided to achieve this objective, committee stressed. Efforts should be made to resolve the issues through Jirga in line with tribal traditions, they underscored.
Some members invited the attention of committee to this aspect some incident of violence takes place whenever the efforts for reconciliation bear fruit and this way all the efforts go waste. It seems some hidden hand is out to sabotage peace drives, they added.