Govt to protect blasphemy law, minister tells NA

ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Religious Affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, on Monday told the National Assembly that the incumbent government would protect the blasphemy law in the parliament and elsewhere.

“This is stand of the government that PTI and its allies will protect 295-C in the National Assembly and the Senate and everywhere,” Noorul Haq Qadri said while responding to speech of the former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the floor of the National Assembly.

The minister, however, told the House that the government has nothing to do with the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which is a prestigious institution.

Referring to the agreement reached between the government and protesters, he said it is not a new agreement of its kind and an agreement was also signed at Faizabad in the past. “Then it took three weeks to reach an agreement whereas we resolved the issue in three days,” he said. He said it was the opposition which also advised the government to refrain from use of force, adding that Prime Minister Imran who was in China also desired that the issue be resolved peacefully.

The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Khan, maintained that the rioters who damaged private and public property and burnt vehicles would not be spared. “Nowhere in the agreement it is written that no action will be taken against the miscreants,” he said adding action would be taken against them according to the law. The Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak also reminded the former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that the opposition had also stressed that there should be no use of force against the protestors.