Summary Religious parties have threatened to take severe action
Dunya News Report (Shahzad Badar)
Security for President Mamnoon Hussain’s family has been enhanced and reports speak of the family taking extra precautions by and restricting their movements.
The president is currently enjoying security under the ‘Blue Category’ which happens to be the highest security measures which can be provided to a person. Despite these heavy protocols, security of the president has been further improved as he is about to make a decision on the mercy appeal filed by Qadri’s family.
Last year one of his son, Salman Mamnoon, escaped a bomb attack on his convoy in Hub when the Baloch Liberation Army tried to target him killing three people.
Religious parties have also threatened to take severe action if Mumtaz Qadri is not released. His mercy petition is lying pending at the presidency and president Mamnoon would be deciding his ultimate fate. Leaders of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, Jamat-e-Ahle Hadis, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-S, Marak-e-Ahle Sunna have all declared support for Mumtaz Qadri. It will have dire consequences for the country,” said Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat leader Allama Noorul Haq Qadri.
“It just needs one Friday announcement to mobilise people,” stated Noorul Haq. He is of the opinion that the Council of Islamic Ideology should have been consulted before the verdict was issued.
Former provincial ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Professor Ibrahim is on record asking for his immediate release. The JI leader is also quoted in the media saying that “The fire that would engulf the nation after the execution of Qadri would be out of control”. The JI leader also warned “President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to protect themselves from the wrath of people”.
Mumtaz Qadri is a former police commando and self confessed killer of Governor Salman Taseer whom he killed in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market in 2011 for supporting Asia Bibi a blasphemy victim. Qadri is popular among lawyers and religious group who claim that he was on the right path. His conviction and death sentence were up held by the High Court and Supreme Court prompting religious groups to threaten the government to release him.
The murder of Salman Taseer has landed the government into a serious dilemma. Will the president reject the mercy petition of a self confessed murderer and plunge the government into perpetual conflict with the religious militants or pardon him and set a precedent for militants to take the law into their own hands and interpret Islam according to their whims?
Qadri’ case is a litmus test for the government – pardoning murders would not help eradicate fanaticism and terrorism from the country.
The government is trying to promote its soft image abroad while religious fanatics murder and harass minorities at home without any fear of government action. The government needs to take serious decision and ensure that its citizens particularly minorities don’t fall prey to false accusations and to death by religious fanatics – only the Council of Islamic Ideology or the parliament has a remedy for resolving the issues related to abuse of the law.
The controversial law of Blasphemy section 295 C was drafted by a senior advocate of the Supreme Court Ismail Qureshi in 1986. Qureshi drafted Section 295-C providing the death sentence as the only punishment for blasphemy and got it tabled in the National Assembly in 1986 through MNA Apa Nisar Fatima of the Jamaat-i-Islami. Most parliamentarians and ulemas have disagreed to including the death plenty as the only punishment to blasphemy. END
