ISLAMABAD: Tahir Ashrafi, the prime minister’s special representative for interfaith harmony and the Middle East, on Wednesday said the government won’t allow anyone to misuse blasphemy laws on their opponents.
Responding to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari’s letter to the United Nations about the “misuse” of the laws, Ashrafi, in a video message, said the abuse of laws on the basis of personal and political grudges against anyone won’t be permitted at any cost.
He said he had already assured the party about it through his media talks after discussing the issue in detail with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar and Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan.
Ashrafi, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, proposed to Mazari to raise the issue at the national forums like courts, Muttahida Ulema Board (MUB) and Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), keeping in view the “sensitivity” of the matter.
He said blasphemy cases lodged against PTI leadership would be decided in the light of the Quran and the Constitution if and when they come to the religious fora through courts.
Lamenting the letter, Ashrafi said it would help provide a basis to the “international conspirators” for making propaganda in a bid to weaken the law.
He expressed the hope that the PTI leadership and Mazari would withdraw the letter as it was not in Pakistan’s interests.
He said it was the collective responsibility of the treasury and opposition in the parliament to keep the laws alive and further strengthen them.
He declared instead of seeking national institutions’ assistance, Mazari launched a drive against the blasphemy law which was not acceptable in any way.
He assured the national and international stakeholders that neither the misuse of blasphemy law occurred in the last two years, nor would be in the future and the cases pertaining to blasphemy would be treated on merit.
