MIRPUR (AJK) - The AJK Parliament Tuesday unanimously passed Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution (Twelfth Amendment) Bill, 2018, declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims.

The joint session of both the houses of the AJK Parliament –Legislative Assembly (lower house) and AJK Council (upper house) – met with Speaker AJK LA Shah Gulam Qadir in the chair.

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Nisar Ahmed tabled the bill in the session, which was passed unanimously. This act shall be called Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution (Twelfth Amendment) Act, 2018, and shall come into force with immediate effect.

According to Azad Jammu Kashmir and Kashmir Interim Constitution Act, Section (2), sub-section (1), “A Muslim” means a person who believes in oneness of Almighty Allah, in the absolute and unqualified finality of the prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and does not believe in, or accepts prophet any religious person or reformer who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever, after Muhammad (peace be upon him).

It also defines non-Muslim as under: “A non-Muslim means a person who is not a Muslim and includes a person belonging to Christian, Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities, a person from Qadiani or Lahori groups (who call themselves Ahmadis or by any other name), or a Bahai, or any person who does not meet the requirements of a Muslim.”

Earlier, the law minister presented the report of the committee on the bill. He said a meeting of the committee was held on February 5 in the committee room. It was attended by Education Minister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani, MLA Muhammad Ahmed Raza Qadri, AJK Council member Pervaiz Akhtar Awan, MLA Raja Muhammad Siddique and MLA Pir Ali Raza Bukhari, he added.

The meeting discussed the bill in detail and unanimously decided to approve the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution (Twelfth Amendment) Bill, 2018.

AJK Parliament declares Ahmadis as non-Muslims