Shujaat rules out changes in Blasphemy law

ISLAMABAD—Former Prime minister and president of Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Chaudhry Shujaat has strongly refuted the recent rumors that government was contemplating any moves to amend the blasphemy and Khatm-e-Nabuwat acts.
While talking to a Muslim League delegation on Tuesday, he strongly berated some nefarious elements of circulating such outrageously unthinkable rumors, in the name of religion. He said that even thinking as such amounts to blasphemy and said that government is not at all contriving for such a rule, which cannot be even discussed.
PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Tuesday categorically denied any consideration by the government to amend Khatam-e-Nabuwat and blasphemy laws, saying, even talking of such issues was itself a blasphemy. “In our view, even touching such issues was tantamount to blasphemy”, he maintained. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was commenting on a recent statement of MMA Secretary General and the Opposition Leader, Maulana Fazalur Rehman.
Maulana Fazalur Rehman has reportedly stated that the government after amending the Hudood Ordinance was bringing in a bill to amend the Khatam-e-Nabuwat and Blasphemy laws in order to protect Qadianis and remove the reservations of minorities.
Talking to a delegation of PML office bearers, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain criticized those elements who are committed to create confusion among the masses and mislead them in the name of religion.
He emphatically stated that neither there was such so-called amendment under consideration of government nor it can be done. “We believe that introducing a bill against Khatam-e-Nabuwat and Namoos-e-Risalat was not only senseless rather discussing it was a sin and tantamount to blasphemy,” the PML President maintained.—Agencies