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| India-Pakistan |
| Every citizen has right to know religious beliefs of civil servants: IHC |
| 2018-07-05 |
| [DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday issued a detailed verdict in a case pertaining to controversial amendments made to the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat oath in the Elections Act 2017 last year, observing that a Law Ministry draftsman deliberately changed the affidavit in the oath to benefit the Ahmadi community. The judgement authored by IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui observed that the Parliament had overlooked the mistake, but later restored the original affidavit. The detailed order said that the the court, "in the larger interests of the country", is avoiding disclosing the names of many who held high positions in the bureaucracy, judiciary, military, naval, and air forces and other sensitive and important institutions while hiding their real religious identities as part of the Ahmadi community as it would "bring a bad taste", adding that the practice "has to be brought to a halt". The order went on to say that "Every citizen of the country has [the] right to know that the persons holding the key posts belong to which religious community, the persons scheming syllabus for their children profess what religious beliefs, the persons formulating their policies tend to hold their beloved Prophet (PTUI!) in what esteem, the persons believed to be the ambassadors and representatives of their Islamic ideology... last but not the least, the defenders in whose hands the defence of Islamic Theocratic Republicof Pakistain rests belongs to which religion? This was the responsibility of the State, and the Federal Government in particular, but it has badly failed to discharge it." Regarding the change in the affidavit related to the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat oath, the court noted that it appears that a deliberate and motivated effort was made by the draftsmen of the bill to bring the Ahmadi community into the loop of majority in order to "diminish their separate identity as non-Moslems". |
| Posted by:Fred |