PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said here on Sunday that report about “Dawn Leaks” didn’t spark constitutional crisis in the country as the government adopted several measures in that regard.

During a brief chat with media after addressing a function, he also justified reservations of some institutions regarding Dawn Leaks, saying complaints of the institutions about leaks were not unreasonable.

“There is no constitutional crisis in the country,” The JUI-F chief said when asked about army’s reaction to the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on the inquiry committee report. The function was organised to give shields and certificates to the party workers and leaders, who performed well in the three-day centenary celebrations of JUI-F.

The army spokesman in a tweet promptly rejected the PM Secretariat’s directives and termed the document incomplete.

Mr Rehman, whose party is coalition partner of PML-N in the centre, said that government had given its reaction to the tweet. “The government has clarified that issues could not be resolved through tweets,” he added.

JUI-F chief opposes repealing or amending blasphemy law

Earlier, addressing the function, Mr Rehman warned against abolition or amendment in the blasphemy law. He said that some forces were trying to amend the blasphemy law on the basis incidents.

“Calling for repeal of laws like blasphemy law that are basis for Sharia (Islamic laws) on the basis of an incident is unacceptable,” said the JUI-F chief. He added that he could distinguish barbarity and cruelty but would not allow anyone to take an incident as a plea for changing or abolishing the Islamic laws.

“There is no justification for amending the blasphemy law on the basis of few incidents,” he insisted. Although he did not mention any specific incident that he was referring to, yet it was clear that he was hinting at the situation that arose after the lynching of Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, by mob on allegation of blasphemy on April 13.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken a suo moto action on the incident and police set up a joint investigation team on the incident and so far arrested more than 40 people including the student, who fired at Mashal. The gruesome incident generated a discussion at various levels on causes and legal lacunas owing to which such a thinking led to lynching of a student on allegations.

After the brutal incident, several civil society groups and political parties launched campaign to seek amendment in the relevant law so that no one could kill or take law into hands on basis of false charges. Street protests have been held by such rights groups to demand justice for the deceased student.

On the other hand, JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami and other religious groups also launched drive in support of the people, who had been arrested in the case. Religious parties are demanding immediate release of the arrested persons.

Mr Rehman said that anti-blasphemy law campaigners would not be provided space to put pressure for abolishing or amending the law. He also said that there was no need for adopting appeasing attitude.

The JUI-F chief said that political parties were doing politics on the basis of day-to-day incidents or issues that was not positive. Instead of presenting their manifesto, political parties had resorted to mudslinging, which was wrong, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2017