SUKKUR: Leaders of religious parties, including the proscribed ones, of all schools of thought have rejected in unison the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2015, recently passed by the Sindh Assembly that put curbs on conversion of children below 18 years of age.

This kind of law had no precedent even in the US, Israel and India, they claimed.

In Sukkur, Owais Noorani, general secretary of Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP), said at a gathering at Madressah Ghousia here on Sunday that the religious scholars would start a campaign against the controversial law from Dec 6.

He said the members of the assembly, some of whom were direct heirs of saints and Sufis and custodians of shrines while some traced their origin to the great personalities of early Islam, should feel ashamed of themselves for making such a law.

Mr Noorani said that late Abdullah Shah, former chief minister of Sindh, must be turning in his grave at the feat accomplished by his illustrious son, Syed Murad Ali Shah. Not a single bill proposed by the Council of Islamic Ideology had been made into law whereas this bill which was supported by NGOs and secular forces had been passed within no time, he said.

He urged all religious organisations to hold peaceful protests throughout the country in order to preempt similar attempts by other assemblies to pass such laws.

HYDERABAD: The head of Sindh chapter of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Faisal Nadeem announced on Sunday holding an all-party conference (PAC) of Sindh today (Monday) in Hyderabad to evolve a strategy against the controversial bill.

He said at a gathering of party activists at Markaz Abdul Rehman Bin Auf on the Autobahn road that all religious and political parties would attend the APC where the religious scholars and prominent political figures of the province would unanimously raise voice against the law.

He said that Pakistan Peoples Party was passing such laws to appease somebody or someone. Such law was never passed even by any foreign country, including the US, Israel and India, or any other provincial assembly of this country, he said.

He said the APC would prove to be a starting point of a movement against the bill. The protests were aimed at preventing such attempts in future as well, he said.

JSM protest

KHAIRPUR: Activists of Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) took out a rally on Sunday in protest against spread of religious extremism and usurpation of Sindh’s rights.

JSM chairman Riaz Chandio and other central leaders of the party, who led the rally that started from Mariam Taup Chowk and terminated at the press club, said that the Karachi operation against terrorists proved there were armed wings of political parties against which the government had failed to act.

They said that there was an unwritten ban on Sindhis talking about their rights. If rights were not given to sons of the soil till Jan 17 next year the JSM would observe 2017 as the year of struggle, they warned.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2016