LAHORE, Aug 23: The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has said it will file a constitutional petition with the Supreme Court to “correct” the 1973 Constitution by passing strictures against its articles and laws which, according to the APMA, are “discriminatory to religious minorities”.

“A number of articles in the constitution and a host of laws are against the spirit of the constitution and this includes its Preamble (article 2-A) which must be deleted, APMA coordinator for the lawyers’ wing Chaudhry Ezra Shujaat told a news conference here on Thursday. He added the alliance had set up a committee of constitutional lawyers and experts to prepare the petition.

He said articles 31 (Islamic way of life), 41-A (president shall be a Muslim), 227 (provisions relating to the Holy Quran and Sunnah) and 228 (the composition of Islamic Council) should also be deleted from the constitution because they were Islamic in character and discriminated against the minorities. He said these articles were in conflict with article 25 of the constitution which ensured that all citizens of Pakistan would enjoy equal rights and that there would be no discrimination on the basis of religious belief.

“The minorities demand that the articles in the constitution and laws be deleted which are not in conformity with the vision of the Quaid-i-Azam which he had translated in his first speech to the constituent assembly on Aug 11, 1947,” he added.

He also demanded that the laws about blasphemy (sections 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code) and enactments falling under the Hudood laws be repealed. He also said the superior and subordinate courts were adjudicating Christians’ cases on marriage and divorce under the Muslim Family Laws and ignoring the Personal Law Ordained in the Christians Marriage Act, 1892, and the Christian Divorce Act 1869.