 Clerics representing various schools of thought on Thursday pledged not to allow changes to Hudood laws and demanded that the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) be reconstituted.
| "Yeah! Put us in charge of it!" |
The pledge was made at the Ulema-Mashaikh Convention held here under the aegis of Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Hudood-e-Islami. A joint communiqué, which was read by MMA MNA Maulana Abdul Malik after the convention, said that the ulema at the convention pledged not to allow anyone to amend Islamic laws, including the Hudood Ordinance.
| "Nope. Y'ain't changin' a single comma!" |
It said all punishments mentioned in the Hudood Ordinance had been mentioned in the Quran, but some NGOs with the support of the government were criticising it. Such statements were “blasphemous” and the government should take action against the responsible people, said the joint declaration. “The present Council of Islamic Ideology is a controversial institution and it should be dissolved and a new council should be constituted consisting of renowned Muslim scholars belonging to all schools of thought,” it said. “The newly-appointed chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court (FST) is a controversial personality because his perspective of Islamic laws is based on Western ideas.” The joint communiqué demanded that a more conventional scholar be appointed the FST chief justice. |