21st amendment aimed at protecting people: Shah

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Tuesday said the 21st Constitutional Amendment was aimed at protecting people and making Pakistan a prosperous country as envisaged by founder of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Speaking in the House before the passage of 21st amendment he said that no Muslim and follower of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) could even think to make legislation against Islam or pass any law for that purpose. The legislation is being framed against those who are using name of our religion for terrorist activities and maligning Islam which teaches love peace and tolerance he said.

Shah said Islam is a religion of love and there is no room in it for any kind of terrorism. According to teachings of Islam killing of an innocent person is tantamount to killing of whole humanity he added.

Khursheed Shah further said the whole nation was united against terrorism and wanted to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country.

He added that it was an important amendment and during the last few days it had been debated on all TV channels and all over the country.

The opposition leader said he was proud of the democratic system which was indebted to PPP leadership Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Khurshid Shah added that we were facing the evil of terrorism for the past many years. Pakistan Peoples Party always opposed military courts and talked about independence of judiciary. But the lives of innocent people and protection of their property are more important for his party he said.

He said that our leadership decided to support the amendment just for safeguarding the bright future of our new generations.

He expressed hope that our forces would follow the constitution.

He also demanded of the Punjab government to take action against those who sabotaged Dua ceremony at the death anniversary of Salman Taseer.