July 05, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 1, 1429

LAHORE, July 4: Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (NS) staged a demonstration outside Data Darbar on Friday to condemn what they called the United States’ interference in internal affairs of Pakistan and to protest military operation in tribal areas.

Demonstrators led by party chief Salimullah Khan gathered after Friday prayers outside the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri. They were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the US and Pakistani rulers.

They condemned US Undersecretary of State Richard Boucher's statement in which he had said that Pakistani politicians should give up the idea of Gen Musharraf's impeachment and focus on food and power crises. Later, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully after torching US flag.

DEATH PENALTY: The Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan have termed commutation of death penalty into life imprisonment a sheer violation of Quran and Sunnah.

General secretaries of both the parties, Syed Munawwar Hasan and Qari Zawwar Bahadur, respectively, said on Friday no body was empowered to annul the death penalties for the crimes which had been envisaged in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

In murder cases, they said, only legal heir(s) of the victims could pardon the sentence after following due course of law as parliament or federal cabinet could not change the Quranic law.

They feared that the policy was the first step towards repealing the blasphemy laws and commuting death penalties into life term of those convicted under the laws.