Ashrafi terms USCIRF’s report baseless, claims no misuse of blasphemy law in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman and Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi on Tuesday said there was no misuse of blasphemy law in Pakistan.

Terming the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)’s report on Pakistan baseless, he said the commission had been misguided by some miscreants in a bid to achieve their nefarious designs.

Ashrafi said Pakistan was a country where the believers of all faiths were being provided all the basic rights as an equal citizen of the state.

He said if there was any bone of contention among the believers of different faiths in Pakistan, they tried to resolve it with mutual understanding instead of indulging in any confrontation.

He said if there was any mishap in the wake of religious extremism, it was properly tackled by all the relevant forums in Pakistan.

It was absolutely fictitious to say that the blasphemy law was being used for personal or political gains in Pakistan as there was a crystal-clear policy of the government and the Ulema and Mashaykh of all schools of thought making all out efforts to stop its misuse at every nook and cranny of the country since the day one.

He said during his tenure as chairman of Muttahida Ulema Board Punjab, he received 12 applications against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan which were not entertained by him keeping in view the sensitivity of the subject.

He further made it clear that those applications were not filed by any government or political entity but they were submitted by the common people due to their reservations on the disappointing incident of Masjid-e-Nabvi (Peace Be Upon Him).

He said the blasphemy law was a unanimous law on which people of all religions were with the majority population of the country because this law had safeguarded the life, property and worship places of all the religions across the board.

Pointing out India in the light of report, he proposed the United States Department of State to take the notice of ongoing brutalities against the minority communities in India.

He said in India, minorities communities were being treated as the third-class citizens and they were being deprived of their basic social and religious rights.

Ashrafi invited the USCIRF to pay a visit to Pakistan and discuss the issues at the relevant forums instead of getting disinformation from the biased people.