Senate panel passes Criminal Laws (Amend) Bill

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Interior on Thursday gave approval to the bill of Senator Afnan Ullah Khan ‘Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ to criminalise display of Zionist symbols.

The bill moved by Senator Dr. Afnan Ullah Khan on April 29, 2024, aimed at whoever knowingly or intentionally display symbols of Zionism to spread hatred and cause a disturbance in public peace, shall be punished with two years imprisonment, or with a fine of Rs 30,000 or with both. According to reason and objective of the bill, The term “Zionism” was coined by Nathan Birnbaum in the year 1890. It was started as an ethnic and religious movement, and later on converted into a political movement on Semitism, which endeavours to gather Jews around the world and attain a homeland in the land of Israel. Zionism is an ethnic, religious and political school of thought, which adopts extremist and strict ways and means to attain their objective. There is no doubt, Pakistan presented a combination of religious harmony and tolerance for all religions, casts and creeds, but supremacy and sovereignty of Allah and Islam is the basis of the Constitution of Pakistan, and being a Muslim State, it should never allow display of symbols depicting Zionism, for spreading unrest in Pakistan. Hence, in the light of above, the said amendment has been brought.