Govt regrets avoiding action on time

Zafarul Haq reveals change in Khatm-e-Nabuwwat not a clerical mistake

LAHORE: As countrywide protests followed the government refusal to sack Law Minister Zahid Hamid for his alleged role in the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat clause controversy, ruling party leadership regretted that if the findings of a committee to probe the matter been taken into consideration on time by party president Nawaz Sharif, the situation could have been averted.

A high-level meeting, held on Saturday at Jati Umrah with Sharif in the chair, discussed the situation prevailing in the country.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister for Railways Saad Rafique and others.

The meeting that continued for four hours decided not to resort to the use of force against the protesters to stop the situation from aggravating any further.



A senior leader said that internally the party was divided over taking the law minister’s resignation, but after the Faizabad sit-in, voices grew in favour of taking the resignation. He said the party leadership tried to pacify the situation without the resignation, which was the prime demand of the protesters.

Since the PML-N did not want to act tough against the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, fearing a countrywide backlash, it decided against the use of force, but after the court order, the government proceeded against the protesters, said the PML-N leader.

The government didn't want a Model Town-like incident, which was why it was hesitating to take on the protesters on its own, he said.

The ruling party leader said that multiple attempts were made by the government to engage the protest leaders in dialogue to convince them to call off their protest, adding that a mere resignation of the law minister could have saved the country from this situation.

He said after attacks on former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar’s residence, law minister’s house in Pasrur and PML-N MNA Javed Latif, it was evident that Hamid’s life was in danger.



He said if the law minister was told to resign, it would establish him as the culprit and that would put his life in grave danger. It was not the protest, or the protesters, that the government feared, it was the sensitivity of the issue that caused the government to hold off.

Zafarul Haq, the party chairman, who headed the probe committee over the controversy, said that a timely action would have averted the situation. He said the probe report was submitted to the party president and any further action would be his discretion.

Reiterating that it was not a clerical error, he said it was done on purpose.

“It’s a fact that we made sincere efforts for dialogue with the protesters,” Haq said, adding that multiple meetings were held, but to no avail.



According to a source, the PML-N is now forced to consider taking the law minister’s resignation to defuse the situation, alongside forming another high-level joint committee to clear his position in the matter.

However, Senator Pervez Rashid said he was not privy to any such decision. He said the law minister’s resignation would not end these protests.

He said these were all politically-driven protests to create unrest in the country, adding that several other clerics would have joined them in their protests if these were genuinely doing it for a religious.

The senator said the findings of the committee had been made public by the government in the recent advertisement in the print media. He said Hamid was not the only person drafting that proposal.

Regarding the high-level meeting at Jati Umra, Rashid said it was a pre-scheduled meeting to discuss the efforts being made by the government for passage of the delimitation bill from the Senate, but the Islamabad situation took over the agenda.

He said other agenda items could not be discussed as Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal had to rush to Islamabad.

Furthermore, the Punjab government has given instructions to the district administrations to adopt a wait-and-see policy and avoid any unnecessary engagement with protesters in the province, according to the DCO office, Lahore.

It was revealed that the administrations have been advised to wait for the situation in Islamabad to defuse.