Veteran party leader, who also served as JI’s secretary general and Punjab emir, passed away after weeks of illness; tributes pour in from across the religious and political spectrum.
LAHORE: Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, a senior Jamaat-i-Islami leader and former deputy emir of the party, died in Lahore on Monday. He had been seriously ill for several weeks. Funeral prayers were scheduled at Jamia Masjid Mansoorah after Isha on Monday. Condolences came from JI’s leadership, from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and from the leadership of the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League.
Hafiz Muhammad Idrees passed away in Lahore on Monday after a long illness. He had been seriously ill for several weeks. According to close sources, his funeral prayers were to be offered at Jamia Masjid Mansoorah after Isha on Monday.
He was one of the longest-serving figures in the party’s leadership. He served as deputy emir for an extended period, and also held the posts of central Qayyim and Punjab emir. Beyond party organisation, he was known as a scholar, speaker and author. He wrote several books on the Quran, Hadith, Seerat and other religious and intellectual subjects. His roots in the Islamic movement went back to his student years when he was among the central members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba.
JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman expressed grief over the death. He paid tribute to Idrees’s religious, political and organisational services, and prayed for forgiveness for the deceased and patience for his family.
JI deputy emir Liaquat Baloch, Dr Farid Ahmed Paracha and other central and provincial leaders also offered condolences. The death comes as the party’s leadership is stretched by its campaign against the petroleum levy, having wound up its Mall Road sit-in on Friday to concentrate on an Islamabad march.
Tributes also came from outside the party. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman telephoned Liaquat Baloch to offer condolences. He paid tribute to Idrees’s religious, national and community services and said those services would be remembered for generations.
The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, which backed JI’s September 3 strike last month, issued a joint condolence statement. Its signatories were PMML President Khalid Masood Sindhu, Secretary General Saifullah Qasuri, Vice Presidents Hafiz Talha Saeed and Hafiz Abdul Rauf, Joint Secretary Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh, spokesman Dr Muzamil Iqbal Hashmi, Khidmat-i-Khalq Chairman Chaudhry Shafiq-ur-Rehman Waraich, Muslim Youth League President Tabish Qayyum and Muslim Students League President Umar Abbas. They said his death had left a void in religious, academic and national circles, and described him as a learned, sincere and practising religious figure whose services would be remembered. They called it a great loss to his family, to Jamaat-i-Islami and to the wider religious community, and prayed for his forgiveness and for patience for the bereaved.
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