LAHORE: Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) on Sunday gave federal government October 20 deadline to reveal those responsible for changes made in the amendment to Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 regarding Khatam-e-Nabuwwat.
Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club on Sunday, Pakistan Ulema Council head Allama Tahir Ashrafi demanded exposing those behind the conspiracy of an amendment to Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 regarding Khatam-e-Nabuwwat.
He said that countrywide movement would be launched if the government failed to make the report public until next Friday.
Ashrafi said that it looked like the federal ministers wanted to declare Ahmadis as Muslim.
He also demanded the removal of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman and Special Assistant to the PM for Law and Justice Barrister Zafarullah from government positions.
The PUC has also challenged the government for a countrywide referendum on the issue of Khatam-e-Nabuwwat.
It is pertinent to mention here that law minister Zahid Hamid last week told the National Assembly that the section regarding avowal of Khatam-e-Nabuwwat has not been changed in the oath-taking form under the newly adopted Election Bill 2017.
“The government cannot even think of deleting this provision. The oath-taking form for the candidate has been made simple but the provision regarding Khatam-e-Nabuwwat has not been changed at all,” he said while speaking on the floor of the house.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah had pointed out that in ‘declarations by the candidate,’ the candidate had to earlier pronounce that he/she must declare ‘on oath’ that he/she believed in Khatam-e-Nabuwwat. However, the word ‘on oath’ had now been omitted from the new text, he said.
“There is a huge difference between ‘just declaring’ and ‘declaring on oath’ that one believes in Khatam-e-Nabuwwat,” he had said, adding that “this should be rectified whether it was a clerical mistake or an intentional change.”