HYDERABAD: Leaders of a number of religious parties and groups announced on Saturday they accepted the apology and the clarification issued by Sindh University teacher Prof Dr Arfana Mallah on her statement over blasphemy law, which stirred controversy.

At a joint press conference, Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, Haji Gulshan-i-Illahi, Khalid Hassan Attari, Imran Soharwardi, Ahmed Ali Saeedi and others said that Arfana Mallah’s comment on social media had hurt religious sentiments of the faithful and led to protests and demands for registration of an FIR against her under the blasphemy law.

But in the wake of her apology and clarification, they did not want to proceed with the FIR against her, they said.

The leaders, who had gathered at the residence of Gulshan-i-Illahi under the aegis of Tanzeemat Ahl-i-Sunnat, said that Arfana Mallah had issued her clarification and video message for everyone in order to clarify her position and seek apology.

In her statement, they said, she had said that she respected blasphemy law and apologised to all those men and women whose sentiments were hurt because of her remarks. She said that she in fact wanted to discuss misuse of blasphemy law, they said.

They urged all religious circles to stop protesting now in view of her statement because there was no justification for the protest after she had sought forgiveness. After her apology they too did not have any reason to keep maligning her, they said.

They appreciated DIG Naeem Sheikh and SSP Adeel Chandio for seriously taking up the issue over their application and said that the statement was issued by Arfana Mallah after consultation with ulema who put to her some more queries in view of religious sensitivity involved with the issue.

She said that she firmly believed in all teachings of Holy Prophet (PBUH) being a Muslim, they said and added that she talked to ulema through video link as well.

Sahibzada Zubair said that when he was in parliament a law was made to stop misuse of blasphemy law.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020