Pakistan’s top court removes ‘objectionable’ portions of judgment in case related to Ahmadiyya community

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan’s top court on Thursday granted a review petition to omit specific sections from its judgment regarding minority Ahmadiyya community.

A three-judge bench led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa delivered a brief judgment accepting the government’s review petition on the heels of countrywide protests by the religious groups, including the Council of Islamic Ideology, a state body that advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam.

Thousands of religious parties’ activists gathered outside the parliament in the capital Islamabad earlier this week, demanding the omission of the “objectionable” parts of the Feb. 6 judgment in the case, known as “Mubarak Sani case.”

Sani, an Ahmadi, who was accused of violating the state’s publishing and printing of Holy Quran Act, was acquitted by a two-member apex court bench on Feb. 6 as his offense occurred before the law was enacted, leading to his bail and release.

In the previous judgment, the judges declared that though the Ahmadis have already been declared non-Muslims by the Constitution, however they have the right to practice and preach their religion, provided that they will neither use religious terms for Muslims in public nor present themselves as Muslims in public.

The religious groups, for their part, objected that the word “preach” in the judgment gives an “unconditional” permission to Ahmedis.

Mufti Taqi Usmani, a renowned religious scholar, told the court on Thursday that as per the Constitution “a non-Muslim was not allowed to preach while posing as a Muslim.”

Since the Ahmadiyya community was “among the minority but do not identify themselves as non-Muslims”, therefore, this particular paragraph of the judgment needed to be rectified, Usmani further said via video link.

“I am not above any mistake,” the top judge remarked, declaring the omission of certain paragraphs of the previous judgment.

Qadiyanis or Ahmadis, who believe that their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is another prophet, were declared non-Muslims by the Parliament in 1974.

Pakistan’s constitution defines a Muslim "as a person who believes in the finality of the Prophet Mohammad.