Rules and regulations: ‘No non-Muslim can teach Islamic studies’

Petitioner alleges 17 non-Muslims being interviewed for teaching Islamic Studies.

LAHORE: Justice Abid Aziz Shaikh of Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday directed the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) to submit an undertaking that no non-Muslim would be recruited as lecturer in Islamic studies.

The judge was hearing a petition requesting the court to declare void a notification for interview of 17 non-Muslims for the lectureship.

Justice Shaikh also directed the PPSC’s counsel to produce their National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) record to establish whether or not they were Muslims.



Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, the counsel for Maulana Azizur Rehman, said the commission was trying to hide the facts by claiming that the candidates were Muslims and that they had mistakenly mentioned them as non-Muslims in the documents.

“How could 17 candidates make the same mistake?”

He said the commission must produce the NADRA record and birth certificates of the candidates to vindicate its claim. He said Articles 2/2A, 20, 25, 36, 31 and 37 of the Constitution had been violated in the recruitment process.

In August 2011, the commission had advertised 1,456 posts of lecturers.

These included 83 men and 49 women lecturers for Islamic studies.

Of the 1,456 candidates, 561 men and 295 women candidates passed the exams and were called for an interview.

The petitioner said 17 non-Muslims were called for the interview for the post of Islamic studies lecturers.

Rehman had filed the petition in 2012 seeking a stay order against the recruitment of non-Muslims as lecturers in Islamic studies. He had requested the court to declare the notification for interviews void.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2014.