Punjab govt makes its law minister reaffirm his faith before clerics

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday clarified that Khatm-e-Nabuwat was an obligatory part of every Muslim’s faith and no one can claim to be Muslim by keeping a belief contradictory to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The law minister was making the submission before a committee formed on the recommendation of Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi to clarify his belief on Khatm-e-Nabuwat (the finality of Prophethood). The meeting was chaired by Nizamuddin Sialvi and attended by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Zaeem Qadri and Maulana Rehmat Ali among other clerics.

Upon listening to Sanaullah’s stance, the committee expressed satisfaction on his faith regarding Khatm-e-Nabuwat. They said that Pir Sialvi and other members of the committee, who could not attend the meeting, would be briefed about the development.

Weeks of stalemate had ended after Pir Sialvi called off protest after meeting Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif last month. Shehbaz had reportedly agreed to form a committee to look into Pir Sialvi’s demands.

The spiritual leader of the Aastan-e-Alia Sial Sharif had been demanding the resignation of Rana Sanaullah over his remarks on the Ahmadi community in a televised show.

Last month, he had also threatened the Punjab government to enforce Sharia within a week or else be ready to face a province-wide protest, which he claimed would bring life to a halt. Sialvi had vowed to continue the movement of Khatm-e-Nabuwat till his last breath.

After three successive deadlines to the Punjab government to clarify its stance over Sanaullah’s comments, the Astana-e-Aalia had announced in December last year that it would not support the ruling party in the upcoming general elections and its followers would resign from the government.

Two MNAs and three MPAs in Punjab had resigned since then, but all of them have now retracted their resignations.

‘SIALVI DENIES DEAL’:

On Thursday, Sialvi had denied having striking any “deal” with the PML-N government, deploring what he called non-cooperative and non-serious attitude of the government about the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Addressing a press conference, Sialvi said he and his fellow companions adopted the course of dialogue with the government only to avoid any confrontational situation in the country. He said that Shehbaz Sharif had assured him that Rana Sanaullah would appear before a six member committee and clarify his position. But, the CM neither contacted the committee, nor the law minister appeared before it.

“Hence, the Punjab government played a joke with us and was getting undue benefit by exploiting the meeting and spreading rumours that Pir of Sial Sharif met the chief minister in Lahore and finalised a deal on the issue,” he claimed.

He said he would put a curse on those who dared to strike any deal on the issue of finality of the Prophet (PBUH).