“Pakistan’s friendship with Saudi Arabia has become deeper”

Syed Munawar Hasan, the sitting chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, is in the news because of his controversial statements declaring Osama Bin Laden and Hakimullah Mehsud as “martyrs”.

Both Hasan and Jamaat-e-Islami were born in August 1941, with a difference of 21 days. However, he joined the Jamaat, following Maulana Maududi’s school of thought in 1960, after spending a couple of years as a student leader with the left leaning National Students Federation (NSF) at the Karachi University.

He converted to JI philosophy, in his own words, after a long discussion and debate with some of the IJT activists. Later, he was elected as IJT central president for three consecutive terms. Though he still likes revolutionary poets, like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib, he believes the work of these poets is “colourless” and anybody can use their poetry in his own context of ideology and revolution.

Hasan is nominated for a second time as chief of JI after the long tenure of late Qazi Hussain Ahmed. TNS talked to him on his statements, JI performance and national issues at Mansoora, Jamaat headquarters in Lahore. Excerpts follow.

ANN.Az