Code of conduct issued for peace in Muharram

By Our Correspondent
July 25, 2021

LAHORE : Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Religious Harmony and Middle East Affairs and President of Muttahida Ulema Board Punjab (MUB) Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi has said that MUB has issued a 14-point code of conduct for maintaining law and order in the holy month of Muharram which has been approved by noted scholars of all schools of thought.

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The code of conduct prepared in line with Paigham-e-Pakistan has been titled Paigham-e-Pakistan Code of Conduct. The MUB members will undertake visits across the country from July 27 to enforce it for eradicating the sectarian extremism, strife, hate speech and provocation, he said while addressing a press conference at Quran Complex Saturday evening.

Noted scholars, including Allama Hussain Akbar, Allama Zubair Abid, Maulana Asadullah Farooq and Muhammad Aslam Siddiqui, were also present.

The copies of the 14-point code of conduct were also released to the media.

Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi said Paigham-e-Pakistan Code of Conduct had stressed the Quran and Sunnah have prohibited use of religious rites and slogans for private military purposes and acquiring armed power. He said scholars, muftis and mashaikh were duty bound to create public awareness regarding the right and wrong, whereas declaring someone apostate is the prerogative of the state which it should decide according to Islamic law. He said Pakistan had been a sacred trust of the Almighty Allah, and using it for any kind of terrorism and extremism was not permissible, adding that all scholars announced disowning all such elements which indulged in armed struggle against the state or help or support any such activity. He said the code of conduct made duty-bound all countrymen to uphold the sanctity of the holy prophets, the companions of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), the spouses and ahle bait (RA), warning that all violators would be dealt with according to the law.

To a question, he said coronavirus SOPs must be observed during the Muharram gatherings since the fourth wave of the virus had hit the country. To another question, Tahir Ashrafi said making negative propaganda about Kashmir issue that Kashmir would be made a province tantamount to damaging the Kashmir cause and supporting the enemy.

Playing with the Kashmir issue for the sake of interests was dangerous at a time when PM Imran Khan has put up the issue before the whole world and the world community, including OIC, was standing by Pakistan's position on the Kashmir issue. Kashmir is Pakistan’s lifeline which no one can betray. Some members of political parties are trying to make the Kashmir issue controversial.

He said the code of conduct barred spreading sectarian hatred, imposing one's ideology on others. He said muftis of Pakistan completely rejected extremist thinking and extremism and saluted the sacrifices and struggles of Pakistan's armed forces and security agencies for the country and the nation. He said establishing law and order in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir was the joint responsibility of the whole world. It is the global responsibility to resolve Kashmir issue in accordance with UN resolutions. The government raised Kashmir before the world in a manner which was unprecedented in the past.

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