CJP moves against faith healer

Application filed with SC’s rights cell converted into suo motu case

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar converted an appeal – filed by a couple who accused a pir, or a faith healer, of indoctrinating to act against religious sects – into a suo motu case on Saturday.

In their appeal filed with the Supreme Court’s Human Rights Cell, Qazi Shakiluddin Ahmad and his wife requested the chief justice to take action against a Lahore-based faith healer allegedly involved in indoctrinating young men to act against a particular religious sect.

The suo motu notice was taken on their application after which the director of the cell wrote to the Inspector General Police Punjab to submit a report in this regard by November 16.

In their three-page application, the couple asked the top court to recover their son Salman Shakil, “brainwashed by Sufi Khurram, and one of his disciples, Rizwan, prompting him to abandon his family”.

The applicants also requested the Supreme Court to take action against Sufi Khurram and Rizwan in accordance with the law. They accused Sufi Khurram of brainwashing young boys and said he was teaching them hate speech against other religious sects.

According to the parents, Salman had been introduced to Sufi Khurram by a friend he met at a local mosque while studying for his BCom degree. Salman started spending his evenings with the Pir and eventually started staying over at his Dera in Lahore.



A year later, the parents said, they recognised signs of radicalisation as Salman started wearing shalwar-kameez and stopped trimming his hair.

Subsequently, he took admission in an MA programme at the University of Central Punjab, only to quit less than a month later, citing “presence of female students” in his class, they added.

According to his parents, Salman devoted the following five years serving Sufi Khurram, altogether abandoning his studies. He eventually started living away from his home, visiting his family for just a few hours every day.

Sufi Khurram, they said, had separated many young men from their families and was exploiting them for expanding his ‘faith healing’ business.

Although Salman moved with his family to Islamabad after developing differences with Sufi Khurram, he soon returned to Lahore when he was repeatedly called by the faith healer.

The applicants stated that their son was made hostage for 10 years, requesting the apex court to ban such organisations, sectarian leaders and fake spiritual healers “who use children to support their nefarious designs”.