PA denounces Quran desecration

LAHORE Terming the burning of Holy Quran at a Florida church worst form of terrorism, the legislators from both sides of the political divide condemned the blasphemous act and demanded the federal government to raise the issue at international forum. The House unanimously passed two resolutions, one presented by Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and the other by PML-Q parliamentary leader Ch Zaheer-ud-Din, condemning pastor Wayne Sapp and Terry Jones for disgracing the Holy Quran. After unanimous passage of both the resolutions, Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood Ahmed adjourned the session without taking up remaining agenda items till Friday morning and led a demonstration at the Punjab Assembly stairs to condemn the blasphemous act. After completion of Question Hour on Tuesday, Ch Zaheerud Din drew attention of the chair toward the tragic incident and requested for the permission to move a resolution. Rana Sanaullah said the treasury also wanted to move a resolution on which the chair gave a nod for bringing both the resolutions. In the resolution, Rana stated: The Punjab Assembly expresses serious concerns and anger over the incident that took place under the supervision of Terry Jones, a cursed priest of a Florida Church where a pastor set ablaze the most honorable Book. The resolution further stated this action of the priest seriously hurt feelings of the Muslims across the world. This House demands of the federal government to condemn the incident and raise it at international level. This House also demands that case should be filed with International Court of Justice (ICJ) against all responsible. Rana said Terry Jones had earlier announced to burn the holy book but later changed the decision on growing international pressure. He said the world community was well aware about the nefarious designs of Terry Jones but it did not react which caused tragic incident on March 20. He said the US blamed Pakistan for not controlling the terrorism but at the same time such incidents took place. The Muslims always love to live with peace even at the time of worst situation but such incidents directly played with their sentiments, he added. In a separate resolution, Ch Zaheerud Din said this House expresses serious concern over the incident of disgracing the Holy Quran. The resolution also declared Terry Jones the enemy of Muslims, saying the priest having backing of Israel and the US hatched the conspiracy to play with the Muslims sentiments. Zaheer said all the citizens including minorities express concerns over the incident and demands a case with the ICJ to ensure punishment to the culprits. He said all the Muslim countries should gather on a platform to foil such anti-Islam conspiracies of the West and Israel. The Muslim countries should also announce boycott of all US products with the firm believe that Allah Almighty is the source of power, honour and everything, he said. Condemning the incident in strong words, opposition leader Raja Riaz assured the House that he would talk to the PPP-led federal government to call the US ambassador to express anger over the sad and shameful act. He said such an action could never be tolerated and the US would have to face the anger of Muslims. He said the Umma was missing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who gathered all the Islamic countries at one platform.