ISLAMABAD – A group of clerics of an eminent religious seminary is mulling requests submitted by over 2,000 labourers and workers seeking a decree to legitimise social crimes, including thefts, to help them fight skyrocketing prices.
Maulana Saif Rabbani, a close aide of the Mohtamim of Jamia Binoria Karachi, Mufti Muhammad Naeem, told Pakistan Today that after failing in their efforts to meet the hiking prices, around 2,000 labourers had lodged separate written applications with the seminary’s Darul Afta seeking a fatwa to legitimise social crimes in light of the Islamic provision that a dying person can even eat haram food to avoid hunger.
“Since Jamia Binoria falls in the limits of industrial area of the port city of Karachi, the poor labourers and people from the working classes prefer to offer prayers here and also benefit from our free medical facility. For the past few months, there has been a frequent trend of submitting applications seeking decree to legitimise social crimes, including theft and robberies as they can’t afford daily use items,” he added.
“Soon after the hike announced in petroleum prices, there has been a significant surge in such applications and Darul Afta is considering these applications. We are also consulting eminent clerics of the country to adopt a unanimous decree over this very important issue which is only one of its kind,” he said. He said that though the Jamia Binoria could provide food to some poor, such a large number of people needed the government’s support.
Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Muneebur Rehman said he was not contacted by any cleric over the issue. Asked to give his opinion, Rehman said he would only give his opinion when he would be approached over the matter. “Neither have I been approached nor have I heard of such an issue. I will come up with my opinion once I am approached. I cannot give a decree on mere assumptions,” he asserted.
