DAR AL HARB-U.K.: PAKHTUNS TREATMENT IN THE U.K.HAS RETURNED TO NORMAL AFTER 9-11 & JULY 7...

‘Situation in UK becoming normal for Muslims’
* ‘UK is home to around 50,000 Pakhtuns, who faced arrests, surveillance after 9/11’

PESHAWAR: “The situation in the United Kingdom (UK) is now normalising after unrest due to the 9/11 attacks on the US and July 7 bombings in London,” said British Pakhtun Association (BPA) Chairman Engineer Fazle Rabbi Khan, while addressing a press conference on Friday.

“The UK is home to around 50,000 Pakhtuns, who faced difficulties after the terrorist attacks in the USA and UK. The British police raided their houses and installed tape recorders with their telephone connections. Hundreds of Pakhtuns were arrested for alleged links with terrorist organisations,” said Khan while highlighting the welfare activities in health and education of Parmakhtag, a non-government organisation (NGO) supported by the BPA in Pakistan.

Khan said the BPA, formed in 2004, had played its due role in highlighting the arrests of Pakhtuns and the illegal raids on their houses. “Our association, helped release a majority of arrested Pakhtuns from UK jails by hiring two legal experts,” he added.

He said that the organisation had taken up the Pakhtuns’ problems with the British parliamentarians, who helped normalise the situation in the UK. In addition, Khan said, the association had launched Pashto language courses and cultural and religious activities for the Pakhtuns of British origin in the UK.

Over the past 50 years, Pakistan could not give proper attention to education, due to which an old educational curriculum and old teaching methods are in force, he said. “If Pakistan wants to promote education on a priority basis, it should increase its education budget and bring modern changes in its curricula and teaching methodology,” he added.

Parmakhtag representative Mohammad Waqar said that his organisation, running on BPA funding, had so far distributed 300 computers in government and private schools, including religious seminaries located in remote areas such as Muzaffarabad, Chakwal, Mirpur, Dir, Mardan, Swat and the Swabi districts of NWFP. He said that Parmakhtag was working to raise the literacy rate and to boost healthcare in the frontier province.



Pertinent Links:

1) ‘Situation in UK becoming normal for Muslims’