August 25, 2006	Friday	Rajab 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Thursday sought disqualification of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal legislators for allegedly committing blasphemy by shredding copies of the women protection bill containing words Quran and Sunnah during their protest in the National Assembly at the time of its presentation on Aug 21.

Talking to Dawn, MQM MNA Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi said disqualification references, signed by 16 party MNAs, had been submitted to the National Assembly secretariat asking the speaker to send them to the Election Commission of Pakistan under Article 62 of the Constitution.

Earlier, speaking at a news conference at the Parliament House cafeteria, MQM legislators announced that the party had also decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court against the MMA MNAs under blasphemy laws.

Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghori, Minister of State for Religious Affairs Amir Liaquat Hussain, Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan, Israrul Ibad and Dr Abdul Qadir Khanzada spoke at the press conference.

They ridiculed justifications given by MMA leaders for their action.

Amir Liaquat disputed a claim of the MMA leaders that there were no Quranic verses and Hadith in the bill.

Mr Ghori claimed that had this act been committed by any other person, the MMA leaders would have burnt his house to ashes. He alleged that the MMA leaders were using Quran and Islam for political purposes.

He said the MQM would seek disqualification of those MMA legislators who had committed blasphemy and they could be identified by seeing the video of the assembly proceedings.

Answering a question, Mr Ghori said the MQM had no political motive behind the move and the decision to file the references had been taken due to their religious sentiments because no Muslim could tolerate desecration of the Holy Quran. He said the MQM also had the support of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League in their protest against the MMA.