Jamat ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed gets a free run in Pakistan, holding rallies and making provocative comments against India. (Associated Press file photo)
A prominent Muslim cleric today dubbed Pakistan as "paapistan" (the land of sinners) and stressed that it deserves this sobriquet due to the violence taking place there every day.
At a function in Lucknow, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, one of the country's tallest Shia clerics, said: "Pakistan in no longer Pakistan, it has become 'paapistan' (land of sinners)... killings are taking place there on a daily basis."
The neighbouring country, he said, could have been Pakistan (the land of the pious) at one time "but no longer."
"Medical science is there to treat human beings when they become ill, but it is different in case of humanity," Maulana Sadiq further said. "When humanity becomes sick among Hindus, it produces people like Asaram and when the same happens among Muslims, people like Hafiz Saeed and Mullah Umar take birth in Pakistan."
Maulana Sadiq is the vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and a noted scholar widely respected for his progressive views.
Saeed, the founder of terror organization Lashkar-e-Taiba who has a $10 million bounty on his head, gets a free run in Pakistan.
While Pakistan claimed to have frozen his assets ahead of the visit of US President Barack Obama's visit to India last month, the US said there was no confirmation of a ban on the other organization Saeed heads - the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.