Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif Sunday said all minorities living in Pakistan enjoyed complete fundamental rights, including protection to their lives and property, under the constitution and in accordance with the Islamic teachings.

“Any negative expression in this regard has nothing to do with the ideology and policy of the PML-N,” he clarified in a statement issued here by PML-N spokesman Senator Dr Asif Kirmani.

Nawaz Sharif said the people had elected him prime minister thrice and during all the tenures he and the PML-N government served the masses and protected the minorities rights regardless of any ethnic, racial and religious bias.

The PML-N, he said, had the distinction of being the party of founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Late Jinnah had guaranteed complete religious and social freedom for the minorities, which was now a constitutional obligation and nobody could even imagine to deviate from it, he added.

Nawaz Sharif categorically said that belief in the Holly Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) as the last Messenger of Allah Almighty (Khatam-i-Nabuwat) was the fundamental part of Islamic faith, which was also an integral part of the constitution of Pakistan. The matter had been settled once for all and it should not be politicised, keeping in view its sensitivity, he added.

He said the mistake in the Election Act 2017 had been undone for what he was thankful to all the parliamentary parties.

Published in Daily Times, October 16^th 2017.