As the party leadership disowns Capt Safdar’s statement, the debate has sparked at the most difficult of the times
LAHORE: Since religion and debate over religious matters are highly sensitive issues, a no-go zone in Pakistan, political and social figures tend to avoid any confrontation of such sort. This could be one reason for varying stance of PML-N leaders over the status of Ahmadis as Muslim or non-Muslim. Earlier this week, PML-N’s Captain Safdar criticised Quaid-e-Azam University’s decision to name its physics department after the physicist Dr Abdus Salam, later the interior minister from the same party slammed the former’s statement calling it ‘hate speech’ against minorities.
With that, Rana Sanaullah joined the chorus too, stating that Ahmadis are not Muslims and are not allowed to preach Islam. As the party leadership disowns Capt Safdar’s statement, the debate has sparked at the most difficult of the times, when the MNA accused of corruption is concerned more about the naming of a university department than corruption charges against him. The same people who previously supported Mumtaz Qadri over the assassination of Salmaan Taseer for alleged blasphemy, have once again kicked up a similar disdainful controversy.
Ali Abbas
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2017.
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