Daily Times

LAHORE: The city was ‘saved’ from a big religious clash on Thursday as the police did not allow members of religious-cum-political parties to hold a “manazara” (an open debate) on the issue of a recent constitutional amendment about Khatam-e-Nabuwat.

The police arrested as many as 100 followers of different religious schools of thought, including International Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (ILYRA), Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) Markazi Jamiat Ahle-hadith (MJAH), Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and Milli Muslim League (MML), in order to maintain the law and order under Section 144 that was imposed by the district government just a night ago with immediate effect to avoid any unpleasant incident during the debate.

Senator Professor Sajid Mir of the MJAH as a Nawaz League government ally in parliament and Dr Allama Pir Ashraf Asif Jalali of ILYRA that is linked with the Barelvi religious seminary named Idara-e-Sirat-e-Mustaqeem ha d challenged each other for an open debate on the amendment in front of the Lahore Press Club at 5pm on Thursday. The government made an amendment to the Election Act 2017 last month but after strong resistance from religious schools of thought and their followers, it was withdraw by passing the Elections Reforms Amendment Bill 2017 on October 5. Though the amendment was reversed, the difference of opinion continued among some religious parties on the wording used in the said amendment.

According to the reversed amendment, words of the oath in the Form-A “I solemnly swear” were replaced with the words “I believe” only in a clause relating to a parliamentary candidate’s belief in the Khatam-e-Nabuwat (finality of prophethood).

Senator Sajid had an argument that the meaning of both the words was the same and could be considered as equal to an oath but the Barelvi clerics were differing to it. On this point, both sides remained in debate on the social media and in press talks but later challenged each other in an aggressive mood to hold an open debate in favour of their arguments. However, the capital city police officer (CCPO) and other administrative authorities of the district made negotiations with both the parties’ leaderships Wednesday night, who agreed that they would not hold the open debate there.

But on Thursday, the followers of both sides started gathering at the fixed spot in front of the Lahore Press Club just after noon. The police arrested all of them, including ILYRA head Pir Ashraf Asif Jalali along with his 37 followers. Sajid Mir did not reach the meeting point as he left for Islamabad after the request of the police and only his 14 followers reached the Punjab Assembly from where they were arrested. Some 24 devotees of TLYR and 21 workers of JuD and MML were also arrested by the police near Shimla Pahari. Workers and followers of the ILYRA and TLYR were fully charged and chanting slogans while addressing the gathering in front of the LPC gate just before the arrests. Speaking on the occasion, Jalali claimed that his opponent Sajid Mir had been defeated, as he did not turn up for the open debate.

Talking to Daily Times, SP Ali Raza said that they had taken the arrested people into protective custody to avoid any clash that was being expected. He also confirmed that Section 144 had been imposed for the same reason, as there was a fear of a clash among members of religious groups, which would threaten the situation of the law and order in the entire city.

According to sources, during the negotiations with the leaderships of both the main opponents – Sajid and Jalali – the authorities informed them about the threat of a terror activity from some third party, as per the reports of intelligence agencies. The authorities asked them not to hold the debate, to which Sajid Mir agreed and returned to Islamabad but Jalali reached there and was arrested.

Published in Daily Times, October 13^th 2017.