LAHORE  - Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi has said that the rights of every citizen are explicitly laid down in the Constitution; irrespective of his caste, creed or religion.

Addressing a press conference here at Saint Anthony Hall Catholic Church on Sunday, he said that it was the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan that no citizen should be afraid of any group. The SAPM told the media that the prime minister had taken notice of the murder of a Ahmadicitizen in Nankana Sahib.

He said that when 295-C and other laws were enacted precisely for dealing with acts of blasphemy; therefore a legal way should always be adopted by everyone to deal with the culprits. He said that facts of the Peshawar incident would be made public, adding that no person or group would be allowed to take the law into his own hands when there is a law to deal with blasphemous acts.

Ashrafi said that the government of Pakistan had written a letter to the rulers of all Islamic countries, in which they had been asked to work on drafting a law for ensuring protection of the sanctity of all religious books and prophets. “The world should come out of Islamophobia now,” he stressed.

Ashrafi said that the government wanted to create such an environment in which non-Muslim citizens could play their active role for the betterment of society.

He categorically said that Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims were burnt alive in India, but the government would never allow such incidents to happen in Pakistan at any cost. He also offered his condolences over the deaths of Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi and mother of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif.

He appealed to the Ulema to ask the seminary students to concentrate on their books and stay away from politics. The SAPM claimed that seminary students did not participate in Peshawar gathering of the PDM.

He also urged the Ulema to wait avoid gatherings for a few days until the second wave of the coronavirus, which was more deadly than the preceding one, was over.