ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) chief Maulana Samiul Haq, one of Pakistan’s top clerics, said on Friday that he had demanded that hands of Nawaz Sharif should be shopped off if corruption charges were proved against him.
Contrary to Samiul Haq’s harsh statement against Sharif, chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman came hard on the judges who disqualified Nawaz Sharif.
Samiul Haq, who runs Jamia Haqqania in Akora Khattak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the major religious schools in Pakistan, issued the harsh statement in reaction to the Supreme Court’s verdict to send PM Nawaz Sharif home.
Like Jamaat-e-Islami, Maulana Samiul Haq was also a former ally of Nawaz Sharif in the Islami Jahoori Ittehad (IJI).
“I had already demanded to chop off Nawaz Sharif’s hands under the Islamic injunctions if allegation of theft is proved against him. No one will dare to get involve in theft after such a punishment. Only disqualification is not enough,” the JUI-S leader said in a statement.
Those who strengthened Nawaz Sharif also deserved punishment, Samiul Haq said in a veiled reference to Sharif’s allies, including Maulana Fazal ur Rehman.
The JUI-S leader paid tributes to the judges of the Panama bench and members of the Joint Investigation Team and assured them that his party would stand for justice.
He opined that Nawaz Sharif had earned wrath of Allah Almighty when he had declared to make Pakistan a liberal country.
Maulana Samiul Haq claimed that the court’s decision has changed Pakistan’s history, saying “it is a victory of justice” that a powerful prime minister had been punish.
Meanwhile Maulana Fazal ur Rehman claimed that the SC’s disqualification of Nawaz Sharif had “plunged the country into political crisis.”
Talking to the media, he said that the verdict of the Supreme Court was “more political rather than [a bid to] deal with corruption”.
He praised Nawaz Sharif for accepting the court’s judgement to ward off any political crisis in the country. He said his party would continue its support to the PML-N.
Sirajul Haq, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, who was also one of the petitioners in the case, addressed his party supporters in Aabpara Friday evening to celebrate the Panama Papers case’ verdict and demanded across-the-board accountability.
Published in Daily Times, July 29th , 2017.
