LAHORE - Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) president Pir Ijaz Hashmi has warned government that all religious parties will start a launch a joint protest campaign on Friday if the Election Act 2017 is not amended till Thursday.

Addressing a press conference at his residence on Wednesday, Hashmi said the JUP wanted the restoration of the affidavit in its original shape in the proposed amendment.

The Election Act 2017 passed through the parliament on Monday. The words “I solemnly affirm” were replaced with “I declare” in the affidavit which is the part of the Act.

The leaders of the religious parties expressed strict reaction against the passage of the law, saying the changing of the “oath” with mere simple “declaration” would allow Ahmedis/Lahories to include themselves in the fold of Islam and that they could now contest election by enlisting them in Muslim voters list. Since Ahemdis, according to the Constitution of Pakistan, are not allowed to declare them as Muslims and contest election on general seats, the leaders say an Ahmedi on becoming member of the parliament now could not be declared disqualified on hiding his/her religious identity because of “not taking oath”—a condition mentioned in previous law to contest election.

Fearing the wrath of the religious segment, the rightwing PML-N government expressed willingness to restore the original words in proposed amendment.  “The replacement of words is not only a drafting mistake but it is a conspiracy and an attack on Islamic identity of the country,” claimed the president of the JUP, the party which represents country’s popular Brelvi school of thought.

Hashmi who believed that the passage of the new law was an attempt to include the Ahmedi/Lahori community into the fold of Islam, demanded of the government not only to expose the real faces behind the “conspiracy” but also take strict action against those who dared to change the affidavit. The JUP leader said the religious parties of all schools of thought were on a single page in defence of the finality of the Prophet-hood and that they would never tolerate conspiracies to malign the Islamic image of Pakistan.

Highlighting the efforts of religious parties and JUP late president Shah Ahmed Noorani in 70s to declare Ahmedis as non-Muslims, Hashmi said that “conspiracies” were being hatched since then to mix Ahmedis with Muslim population of the country and that Monday’s move was the part of those “malicious schemes.” The JUP leader also raised question on the silence of religious parties’ legislators especially of JI chief Sirajul Haq and JUI-F president Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman when the bill introduced in the Senate and National Assembly. Hashmi said Sirajul Haq must clear his position that why he was absent when the bill was passed through the Senate. Similarly, he questioned, why more than a dozen legislators of JUI-F had not resisted the passage of the bill through the National Assembly.  

To a question, he said unity of religious parties were only possible when JUI-F and JI would dissociate themselves from PML-N and PTI respectively.

 

 

IFTIKHAR 04-10-2017

 

 

OUR STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE