LAHORE, Aug 3: Jamaat-i-Islami provincial amir Liaquat Baloch has said the government is too weak to abolish the Hudood Ordinance and wants to make it ineffective through unnecessary amendments.
In his presidential remarks at a seminar on Hudood Ordinance arranged by the JI political wing at the Hamdard Centre here on Thursday, the MMA leader said the US and European countries continued to demand repeal of the ordinance because it was an obstacle to change the Islamic identity of Pakistan.
The propaganda that a large number of women were in jail on account of Hudood laws had, however, proved baseless when only a few hundred had been found involved in cases out of thousands released in the recent past.
He said there was no doubt about the fact that the ordinance had been promulgated during the dictatorial rule of the late Gen Muhammad Ziaul Haq but it was also a fact that these had been formulated by eminent jurists like A.K. Brohi, Khalid Ishaq and Justice Afzal Cheema (retired).
He said the opponents of Hudood laws had put them against the wall by insisting on outright repeal instead of amendment. The government had tried to use the issue for dividing the opposition but it had failed to do so.
The government should reconstitute the Council of Islamic Ideology by nominating religious leaders of all schools of thought, he suggested, and demanded that the present chairman and members should be dismissed because they were working only for implementation of the foreign agenda.
The MMA would, however, play an effective role in defence of Hudood laws outside and within parliaments. It would also raise the issue at the international level by convening a national convention.
Mr Baloch criticised the government for ignoring the real issues facing the Muslim Ummah. He said the issues like Hudood Ordinance were raised by the government to divide the people and divert their attention from the real problems.
Tehrik-i-Tahaffuz-i-Namoos-i-Risalat convener Dr Sarfraz Naeemi said the opposition should remain on guard against the government efforts to amend the ordinance. He said the government could also amend the laws through an ordinance instead of presenting the amendments before parliament. He also proposed a dialogue with the NGOs on the issue.
MMA human rights wing secretary-general Asadullah Bhutto said the Hudood Ordinance had been promulgated in 1979 but nobody had demanded repeal from within or outside the country until recent past. Three bills moved in parliament for amendments had been defeated and the MMA committee, headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had declared the laws in accordance with Islam which safeguard dignity of women.
Islamic Lawyers Front president Sheikh Khizar Hayat said even the demand for repeal of the ordinance was un-Islamic. While JUI leader Maulana Manzoor Ahmad said the ordinance conformed to the principles of Islam.
According to JUI secretary-general Qari Zawwar Bahadur, secular elements continued to demand repeal of the ordinance to please the western governments. The opponents of the laws, Maulana Abdul Maalik said, had already been defeated and were demanding amendments to it.
Former Lahore High Court chief justice Allah Nawaz proposed a joint seminar of the opponents and supporters of the ordinance to resolve the dispute while Allama Ghulam Rasul Qasmi proposed constitution of a committee of religious scholars of all schools of thought to review it. —Reporter