LONDON: Wajid Shamsul Hasan, former high commissioner for Pakistan to UK, has clarified what he called an “out of context reference” to his speech at the Ahmadiyya Peace Conference in UK on Aug 23. However, he offered his profound regrets if whatever he had said hurt the feelings of any sect of Muslims.

In a statement issued to the media, he referred to the Punjab Assembly resolution flaying him for an alleged interview published by a Lahore Urdu newspaper in which he was quoted as saying that to declare Ahmadis a minority was a wrong decision.

The former high commissioner clarified that he had never given any interview to any newspaper on the referred issue, especially to the one which is reputed to be the mouthpiece of a religious-political organisation whose founder had called the Quaid-i-Azam Kafir Azam and his idea of Pakistan as “Na-Pakistan”.

He said, “I am surprised that Honourable Punjab Assembly members took pains to discuss, condemn and pillory me for an out of context reference to my speech (and not interview as stated by a member) given at the Ahmadiyya Peace Conference.”

In August 2010, he said, a massacre of Ahmadis took place in Lahore and “I had gone to the Ahmadiyya Centre to condole the death of over 90 Ahmadis with the head of the community. The next day, the media in Britain reported fatwas against me, declaring me to be a heretic.

“I attended the Ahmadiyya peace conference in Alton in my personal capacity and my entire speech centred around the Kalima — ‘La Ilaha Illallaho Muhammadur Rasool Allah — Love for all, hatred for none’ theme of the conference. I made a speech in which I reiterated that Islam is a religion of peace and its Prophet (Peace be upon him) is Khatamun Nabeen and Rehmatul Lil Aalameen.

“In my speech at the Ahmadiyya peace conference I reiterated that Pakistan could only survive by reverting to the Quaid’s vision of a liberal, secular progressive democracy. I explained that there was no contradiction between the Quaid’s vision and Islam. He believed in democracy as an Islamic concept when he claimed that democracy was in the blood of Muslims since the advent of Islam. His concept of human rights was based on Islamic principles of social justice.

“The Quaid’s political philosophy was finally delivered to us as a nation in his speech of Aug 11, 1947, in which he declared that all citizens in his Pakistan would be equal citizens, enjoying equal rights irrespective of caste, creed, colour or gender, where Hindus would be free to go to their temples, Muslims to their mosques, Christians to their churches etc. Islamic socialism and secularism — according to the Quaid — were not contrary to the spirit of Islam but its real manifestation.

“I regretted in my speech that after his death his dream of a Pakistan as a modern, democratic, liberal and secular state was waylaid by the power troika comprising military, civil and judicial bureaucracy backed by the feudal and vested interests. As a result, the Quaid’s vision of Pakistan as an Islamic social welfare state got converted to what we have today — a country where life has become nasty, brutish and short, at the hands of those whose forefathers hated the Quaid and Allama Iqbal.

“As for the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims by the parliament under Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — who I maintain shall remain my great leader until my end — what I said was in the historical context mentioned above. Personally I believe that any conglomerate of people (assembly or parliament) with its members following different sects or fiqahs cannot override the divine right of the Creator to decide about the real intent and purpose of His created beings.

“And I leave it at that. If I hurt anyone’s feelings, I again offer my apologies.”

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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