MULTAN, Feb 1: State Minister for Law, Justice and Information Technology barrister Raza Hayat Hiraj has underlined the need to exercise Islamic laws and values.

He was speaking at the concluding session of a training programme of lawyers belonging to Multan region organised by the Sharia Academy of International Islamic University, Islamabad, at the Bahauddin Zakariya University here on Saturday.

The minister questioned that why the Islamic laws were not implemented in the day-to-day life when the country’s constitution declared Quran and Sunnah the supreme law. He stressed that the law education and its syllabus be transformed in line with the Islamic jurisprudence.

The supremacy of law and justice could only be upheld with the cooperation of lawyer community, he said and added that lawyers should prove the sanctity of their ‘black coats’ by becoming the symbol of law and justice. An independent judiciary, he claimed, was the top priority of the present government.

Speaking on the occasion, BZU vice-chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry announced that university was introducing M.Phil classes in law from the current year. He assured that all resources were being employed to upgrade the law education and social sciences at the university at par with the international standard.

Rector of the Islamic University, justice Khalilur Rehman Khan (retired) said there was no concept of an Islamic welfare state without linking the laws of the land with the Islamic jurisprudence.

Coordinator of a 12-day training workshop and director general Sharia Academy, Prof Muhammad Yousaf Farooqi, said that non-Muslims wanted to paint Islamic laws barbaric and inhuman.

To nullify this impression the Sharia Academy had launched a country-wide training workshops enabling law practioners to interpret Islamic jurisprudence in its true sense, he added.