Religious scholar of eminence, Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr M Tahir-ul-Qadri, has come up with the concept of "Change the System" which, in his considered opinion is the only way to pull the country out of its present morass. Speaking at the "Ambassador of Peace Conference" at the main auditorium of Arts Council Karachi here the other day, in a call to the nation, he said that 'Change' was the only solution to the crisis of Pakistan.
Prominent among those who attended the conference were: Minister Information Technology, Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza, and Vice-Chancellor Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Masood Hameed Khan etc and a large number of people including women.
In a thought provoking speech which kept the audience spell bound for several hours, Dr Qadri who is also founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran International explaining his concept of change in a lucid prose said that in current circumstances, election was not the solution to the nation's woes, as current electoral system was corrupt and protector of two percent corrupt and elites while 98 percent of common people were suffering.
He suggested formation of national government selecting clean, honest, competent persons from all sections of society, which included politicians, technocrats, people from media, lawyers, and traders, etc, National government to provide new social contract, new electoral system, new financial system and foreign policy.
He refutes the division of world into two categories Dar-al-Islam (the abode of Islam) and Dar-al-harb (the abode of war) and the West is the latter. He instead divides the world into five categories and argues that the word "Dar-al-Islam" actually implies "the abode of peace" rather than the abode of Islam and that all countries under the United Nations, whether Muslim or non-Muslim actually come under Dar-el-Ahad (house of treaty) which is the same as Dar-al-Islam.
Dr Qadri thought that "all these Western countries, Britain, Europe, North America, wherever you are living, since you are enjoying all rights, all freedoms according to the constitution as other non-Muslim communities are enjoying, there is no difference. In fact "you are enjoying the rights and freedoms much better than in many other Muslim and Arab countries," in his opinion.