Maulana Abdul Aziz delivered a sermon on Friday after escaping the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration.
There are usually two ranger vehicles outside the Lal Masjid but on Friday there was just one due to the heavy crowd of Friday-prayers, and the police and rangers were astonished to see Maulana Aziz come deliver the sermon.
“Democracy is un-Islamic. I am ready to challenge any cleric who claims the democratic system is allowed under Islam,” said Maulana Aziz.
The Jamia Hafsa building and the library were demolished in 2007 by the government following the operation of Lal Masjid.
He said Jamia Hafsa should be built on the plot adjacent to Lal Masjid, which used to be a children’s library and was occupied by female students of the Jamia Hafsa before the 2007 military operation.
Maulana Aziz in his sermon said that he will not lead the Friday prayers because of ICT.
He also hinted a political leader for bringing out a million march for the implementation of Sharia law in the country.
Maulana Aziz added that “things are getting closer and there will be a change in the system soon”.
Maulana was removed from the post on the orders of the court in 2004 following a fatwa he issued against the army and the operation against terrorists in Waziristan.
However, he was reinstated after his release from prison in 2009, but he stirred another controversy in 2014 after he openly extended support to the perpetrators of the Army Public School attack in Peshawar by calling it a reactionary move by the terrorists.
Lal Masjid is a state-owned mosque and Maulana Abdullah, father of Maulana Abdul Aziz, was its first cleric. After his assassination in the 1990s, Maulana Abdul Aziz was appointed the cleric by the ICT’s Auqaf Department.