ISLAMABAD: Three clerics have filed a complaint with the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against a judge of the Lahore High Court for citing a judgement that referred to the Ahmadiyya community as a Muslim sect.

The complaint, authored by Mufti Muneebur Rehman and co-signed by Qari Mohammad Hanif Jalandhri and Maulana Qari Yaseen Zafar, expressed strong objections to para 14 of the judgement, delivered in a family case.

The complaint has taken issue with the judgement’s reference to the Ahmadiyya community as a sect of Muslims, while deliberating on a previous legal precedent on khula (separation).

The clerics’ complaint highlighted that Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf had cited a 1959 case and reproduced a citation from the same judgement. In paragraph 14, the judge quoted excerpts from the aforementioned judgement, recounting the “Ahmadiyya view” regarding the concept of khula as mentioned on Pg 235 of Aziz Ahmad’s Muslim Law.

The clerics argued that the citation of the judgement is an endorsement of the view that the Ahmadiyya community is a Muslim sect. “If the excerpt is contrary to the facts, the court is obligated to reject it,” the complaint says.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2024