Mufti Kifayatullah slams ban on entry into Rawalpindi

MANSEHRA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Mufti Kifayatullah on Wednesday termed a ban on his entry into Rawalpindi for two months as a violation of his basic human and constitutional rights.

“The government should immediately lift the ban as I have to present my paper in an international Khatm-i-Nabuwwat conference being held in Rawalpindi on September 6,” he told reporters here.

He said that a letter issued by the deputy commissioner Rawalpindi last week banned his entry into the district for two consecutive months. “This government wants to suppress my voice against its wrong policies, high inflation and unemployment in the country and imposed a ban on my entry into Rawalpindi in violation of the freedom of speech and other human rights bestowed by the Constitution of this country,” said Mufti Kifayatullah.

He said that letter was delivered to him through an assistant sub-inspector by the order of the district police officer, Mansehra.

“The government should reconsider its decision of putting me under a ban to travel to Rawalpindi in breach of the country’s democratic norms and constitution as I am a patriotic Pakistani,” the JUI-F leader said. Mufti Kifaytullah was arrested earlier this year under the treason charges leveled against him by the federal cabinet but he was released after three months captivity by the order of the Peshawar High Court.

Meanwhile, the JUI-F Mansehra chapter has demanded an immediate lifting of the ban on the mobility of Mufti Kifayatullah.