ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi has said that the government will establish ‘interfaith harmony councils’ across the country and there are plans to include the subject of religious tolerance in the curriculum.

Talking to a delegation of ulema belonging to different schools of thought here on Tuesday, he said that on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan ‘interfaith harmony councils’ would be established all over the country at union and tehsil levels to promote religious tolerance.

Hafiz Ashrafi said that the ‘interfaith harmony councils’ would include representatives of all religions, sects of Islam and denominations of other religions, to promote intra-faith dialogue also.

He said the establishment of these councils would help eliminate the registration of false blasphemy cases and stop people from taking the law into their own hands after instigation by an unauthorised person.

Says blasphemy cases have declined due to coordination between clerics and religious scholars

The PUC chairman said that blasphemy cases had witnessed a decline over the past two years due to effective coordination between clerics and religious scholars.

He said the new councils would prove to be a positive initiative as they are expected to keep a check on misuse of blasphemy laws. “Joint sittings of representatives of different religions and schools of thought should be held regularly across the country,” he added.

The PM’s special assistant said that most of the false allegations about blasphemy had been levelled by certain miscreants for personal benefits.

He said the Constitution had categorically defined the rights of minorities and any organisation or individual could not be allowed to take away the rights of others.

“Ending extremism, terrorism and sectarian violence requires dialogue between people of different groups and to achieve this goal the government will hold training sessions for imams, preachers, teachers as per modern requirements and standards of society,” he added.

Hafiz Ashrafi said that interfaith dialogue was the need of the hour as it was an essential requirement to eradicate the menace of sectarian violence, extremism and terrorism.

He said that in order to promote religious harmony topics on religious leniency and tolerance would be made part of curriculums at schools and colleges.

The PUC chairman said training workshops for ulema, mashaikh and even the non-teaching staff in religious seminaries would be conducted.

“The enemies of the nation are taking advantage of religious intolerance in our society and killers of Maulana Dr Adil Khan should be exposed and taken to task. Pakistan has evidence to prove that Indian elements are involved in fomenting sectarian violence here,” Hafiz Ashrafi said.

In reply to a question, he said the government was working to resolve the challenges of expatriate Pakistanis imprisoned abroad or facing other issues in the wake of Covid-19.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2020