ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior retired Brig Ijaz Shah has said the government has no intention to amend sections pertaining to Islam in the Constitution.

Talking to a delegation of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) here on Tuesday, he said the government also had no intention to amend the constitutional clause relating to belief in the finality of Prophethood (peace be upon him).

The 15-member delegation, led by PUC chairman Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, met the interior minister amid rumours circulating on social media regarding the constitutional status of the Ahmadi faith. The delegation warned that any amendment to that status would be repulsed by all sections of society and the situation would be exploited by extremist elements.

It was also decided that the PUC would also oppose any kind of political or anti-government activities by seminaries, their students and mosques.

About the mainstreaming of seminaries, the minister said the government had decided that new seminaries would be registered with the Ministry of Education.

“The government is not taking up any proposal to amend syllabus of madressahs,” Mr Shah said, adding that the government was all set and decided to take Ulema and Mashaikh into confidence on madressah reforms and its efforts to eliminate extremists and terrorists from the country. He said there were plans to award government degrees to the students of seminaries so that they could be provided better employment opportunities.

The minister said the Islamic social justice system was very effective and workable for the entire world, adding that clerics as well as religious segments needed to spread the teachings of Islam for the unity of Muslim Ummah. “Elements fanning extremism and sectarianism in the name of Islam are the friends neither of Islam nor of the country,” he added.

The interior minister said the government was striving to establish a system similar to the ‘state of Medina’ in Pakistan and asked the PUC delegation to play an active role in discouraging the use of religion and religious decree for personal pursuits.

“This is very unfortunate; Ulema should play an effective role in exposing the elements responsible for fanning anarchy and chaos in society. Such elements should be discouraged to issue decree for their political and personal advantages,” the minister said.

Tahir Ashrafi said the PUC believed in pluralism and acknowledged the rights of all religious minorities as granted by Islam.

“Since its inception, the PUC has struggled for the stability of Pakistan and made collective efforts along with leading religious schools of thought by issuing decree against terrorism and extremism. We support the government in keeping a check on the elements spreading anarchy in country through social media,” the PUC chairman said.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2019