Qadyaniat Defeated in the Parliament

296 Pages·2017·1.29 MB·English

Qadyaniat Defeated in the Parliament
Detailed Proceedings of National Assembly
Sessions on the issue in 1974
Reproduced by
Sani H. Panhwar
QADIYANIAT
Defeated in the Parliament
A complete account of the proceedings of the National Assembly regarding declaration
of Qadianis asNon – Muslims.
Reproduced by
Sani H. Panhwar
QadyaniatDefeatedintheParliament ©www.sanipanhwar.com 1
INTRODUCTION
After the fall of Muslim Empire in India in mid-1800s many reformist Muslim
movements emerged Ahmadiyya movement was one of them. It was founded in 1889
by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed he was under divine instruction to fulfill the
major prophecies contained in Islamic and other sacred texts regarding a world
reformerwho wouldunite humanity.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad announced to Christians awaiting the second coming of Jesus,
Muslims anticipating the Mahdi, Hindus expecting Krishna, and Buddhists searching
for Buddha, that he was the promised messiah for them all, commissioned by God to
rejuvenate true faith.
After his death the Ahmadiyya split into two sects: the ‘Qadianis’ and the ‘Lahoris’. The
Qadianis claimed that Mirza was a prophet, and accused all Muslims who did not
accept him as being non-Muslims.
In 1914 Ahmadiyya leader, Mirza Muhammad Ahmad, began to publicly declare that
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a messiah and those Muslims who disagreed with this were
infidels.
on May 22 1974 a train stopped at Rabwa, (Jamaat-e-Islami) JI students got out and
began to raise slogans against the Ahmadiyya and cursed the community’s spiritual
figurehead, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The train then left the station taking the charged
students to Peshawar. No untoward incident was reported apart from the slogan-
chanting and cursing. However, when the incident was related to some Ahmadiyya
leaders in Rabwa, they ordered Ahmadiyya youth to reach the station with hockey
sticks and chainswhen the train stops againat Rabwa onits waybackfrom Peshawar.
After finding out that the students would be returning to Multan from Peshawar on the
29th of May, dozens of young Ahmadiyya men gathered at the Rabwa station. As the
train came to a halt, the men fell upon the bogeys carrying the JI members. A fight
ensued and 30 JI men were severely beaten for insulting the religious sentiments of the
Ahmadiyya.
Interestingly, whereas the first incident had only been briefly reported by the
newspapers, the news of the attack on IJT was prominently displayed in the country’s
conservative Urdu press.
JI demanded that the culprits of the attack be apprehended or the party would hold
countrywide protest rallies.
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Police arrested 71Ahmadiyya menin Rabwaand the Punjab government headed by the
PPP’s Chief Minister, Hanif Ramay, appointed K M Samadani, a High Court judge, to
hold aninquiryinto the incident.
A protest movement was launched by different political parties which included the
centre-right Muslim League, the right-wing Majlis-i-Ahrar and even the centrist Tehrik-
i-Istiqlal headedbyAsgharKhan. Joining theprotests were also various barassociations
of the Punjab, orthodox ulema and clerics and the student wing of JI, the IJT. They
demanded that Ahmadiyya members be removed from the bureaucracy and the
government; Ahmadiyya youth outfits be disarmed; and that Rabwa be declared an
open city becauseit hadbecome ‘astate within a state.’
The leaders of the protest movement then demanded that the Ahmadiyya be
excommunicated from the foldof Islam.
On June 4, while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Bhutto
refused to allow opposition members to speak on the Ahmadiyya issue. He accused the
opposition of being‘hell-bent on destroying the country.’
Then, when the riots escalated, Bhutto gave the Punjab CM the green signal to use force
to quell the riots. The police came down hard on the rioters and managed to reduce the
intensity of the turmoil after aweek.
On June 14, opposition parties called for a wheel-jam strike. It was successful in the
Punjab and in some cities of the NWFP, but was largely ignored in Sindh and
Balochistan. Bhutto reminded the opposition how the army had brutally cracked down
against anti-Ahmadiyya rioters in 1954, he appealed to the opposition that the
‘Ahmadiyya question’ can be settled in a more civilized manner without resorting to
violence andbigotry.He saidnow wasnot the righttime.
Bhutto appeared on TV and radio and insisted that he will not allow ‘savagery and
cannibalism’. He said the Ahmadiyya issue had been around for 90 years and could not
be solved in a day. He suggested that the issue be referred to the Advisory Council of
Islamic Ideology (ACII) — a non-legislative advisory body that was formed by the
Ayub Khan dictatorship in the early 1960s and was mostly headed by liberal Islamic
scholars.
After the June 14 strike, Bhutto allowed the issue to be discussed in the assembly and
told the press that his party members in the House were free to vote on the issue
according to theirindividualconscience.
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Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) chief, Maulana Mufti Mehmood, who was heading the
opposition’s stand on the issue, responded by accusing Bhutto of trying to put the
‘Ahmadiyyaquestion’ incoldstorage.
Religious parties, the fundamentalist JI, the Deobandi Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and
the Barelvi Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) had formed an ‘Action Committee’ with the
centre-right Pakistan Democratic Party (of Nawabzada Nasarullah) and Pagara’s
Muslim League. They called it Qadiyani Muhasbah Committee (Committee for the
Exposition of Qadyanism).
Opposition parties such as the left-wing National Awami Party (NAP) remained silent.
Mufti Mehmood demanded that a bill be passed in the assembly that would once and
for all declare the Ahmadiyya community as a non-Muslim minority. Jamaat-i-Islami’s
Mian Tufail demanded the same and warned Bhutto that ‘his double-talk on the
Ahmadiyya issue would trigger his downfall.’ The centre-right PDP also joined the
chorus and demanded that a bill be introduced in the Parliament declaring the
Ahmadiyya as non-Muslim. Opposition parties and clerics again threatened to take to
the streets to force the government to introduce the suggested bill.
Bhutto maintained that declaring the Ahmadiyya a minority and pushing them out
from state and government institutions would be detrimental to the economy and
political stability ofthe country. He also protested that the issue was a religious one and
hence the NationalAssemblyshould notbe used to resolveit.
The religious parties disagreed. They reminded him of the constitution all the political
parties had approved only a year ago (1973). They told him that the constitution had
declared Pakistan as an Islamic Republic so how could he claim that a religious issue
had no placeinthe NationalAssembly?
It was about this time that some advisors of Bhutto warned him that if the crises was
allowed to simmer or be sidelined, the party might lose some members in the Punjab
and National Assemblywho weresympathetic towards thedemands ofthe opposition.
On Bhutto’s orders, one of his ministers, Kausar Niazi, led a government delegation
that held a series of meetings with the ulema belonging to Sunni (both Deobandi and
Barelvi) sub-sects, and the Shia sect. They agreed to form a parliamentary committee to
look into the demands of the parties that were leading the anti-Ahmadiyya movement.
The government convinced the opposition members of the committee that the spiritual
leader of the Ahmadiyya community also be given the opportunity to present his
thoughts and opinion on the issue.
After weeks of intense dialogues among the parliamentary committee, the ulema and
the head of the Ahmadiyya community, the committee decided to finally introduce the
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bill in the assembly. It was reported that a majority of PPP legislators were unwilling to
vote for the bill. But even though the report that was prepared by the committee was
never made public, parts of it were leaked to the legislators and the report allegedly
recorded the head of the Ahmadiyya community telling the committee that he only
considered those whowereAhmadiyya asMuslims.
On Sept 7, 1974, the bill was passed and the Ahmadiyya became a non-Muslim
minority. Later on in 1984, the Zia's government issued an ordinance which prohibited
the Ahmadiyya from preaching or professing their beliefs. Their places of worships
cannot be called mosques and they are barred from performing the Muslim call to
prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the
Quran, preaching in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and
disseminatingtheirreligious materials.
We have reproduced the detailed proceedings on National Assembly sessions and few
articles at the end ofthe book.
Sani Panhwar
California2017
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HISTORIC RESOLUTION OF OPPOSITION
On 30th of June 1974, the opposition in the National Assembly moved a resolution to
get the Qadiyanis declared a non Muslim minority. The content of the resolution is as
follows:
Respected Mr. Speaker
National Assembly ofPakistan
Sir,
We herebyrequest to beallowedto present the followingmotion:
Whereas, it is a proven fact that Mirza Ghulam Ahmed of Qadiyan claimed to be a
prophet after Khatam un Nabiyyeen (the last of the prophets), Hazrat Muhammad
(SAW).
And whereas, this false claim by him is tantamount to falsify the Quranic verses, nullify
the Jihadanda revolt against majorinjunctions of Islam.
And whereas, he was brought into being by the Imperialistic forces and his sole aim
was to dismantlethe unity of the Muslimsand to falsifyIslam.
And whereas, the entire Muslim nation unanimously holds that the followers of Mirza
Ghulam Ahmed, whether they believe in his prophet hood or consider him to be a
reformer orareligious leaderinanyform, areexpelledfrom thecircleofIslam.
And whereas, the followers of Mirza, by whatever name they are known, on the pretext
of being Muslims and falsely claiming of being a Muslim sect, are busy in destructive
activities.
And whereas, in a conference of Muslim organizations of the world held in Makkah
from 6 to 10 April 1974, and in which 140 organizations from all over the world
participated, it was unanimously declared that Qadianiyyat is a destructive movement
against Islam,which claimsto be asect ofIslam.
Now, this Assembly should proceed to declare that the followers of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmed, by whatever name they are called, are not Muslims; and a bill be presented in
National Assembly to give effect to this declaration; and in order to protect their valid
rights as a non Muslim minority, necessary and appropriate amendments be made in
the constitution
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Movers of theResolution
(1) Maulana Mufti Mehmood
(2) Maulana Abdul Mustafa Al-Azhari
(3) Maulana Shah AhmadNoorani
(4) Professor Ghafoor Ahmad
(5) Maulana Syed MuhammadAli Rizvi
(6) Maulana AbdulHaq (Akora Khatak)
(7) Ch. Zahoor Ilahi
(8) Sardar SherBazKhan Mazari
(9) Maulana Muhammad ZafarAhmed Ansari
(10) Mr. AbdulHamidJatoi
(11) SahibzadaAhmad Raza Kasuri
(12) Mr. Mehmood AzamFarooqi
(13) Maulana SadderulShaheed
(14) Maulana NaimatUllah
(15) Mr. UmraKhan
(16) Makhdoom Noor Muhammad
(17) Mr. GhulamFarooq
(18) Sardar MaulaBakhshSumroo
(19) Sardar ShaukatHayat Khan
(20) HajiAli Ahmad Talpur
(21) Rao Khurshid Ali Khan
(22) Raees Ata Muhammad Khan Murree
Later on the followingalsosignedtheresolution
(23) Nawabzada MianMuhammad ZakirQureshi
(24) Mr. GhulamHassan Khan Dhandla
(25) Mr. KaramBakhsh Awan
(26) Sahibzada MuhammadNazir Sultan
(27) Mehr Ghulam HaiderBharwana
(28) Mian Muhammad IbrahimBarq
(29) Sahibzada Safiullah
(30) SahibzadaNaimatUllahKhan Shanwari
(31) MalikJahangirKhan
(32) Mr. AbdulSubhan Khan
(33) Mr. Akbar Khan Mehmand
(34) Major GeneralJamaldar
(35) HajiSaleh Muhammad
(36) Mr. AbdulMalik Khan
(37) Khawaja JamalMuhammad Kori
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PROCEEDINGS OF 5th of AUGUST, 1974
The proceedings of the special committee comprising of the entire House of National
Assembly was held on Monday, 5 August 1974 in the Assembly Chamber, State Bank
Building, Islamabad at 10:00 a.m. Speaker Sahibzada Farooq Ali Khan was in the Chair.
After recitation from theHolyQuran’, theQadiyanidelegationwas called.
The proceedings startedwith the cross-examination on MirzaNasir.
Mirza Nasir: I pledge on oath,whatever Isaywillbetrue to the best of mybelief.
Attorney General: Please state the details ofyour familybackground.
Mirza Nasir: I request you to give me some time for it. I will submit a written statement
tomorrow.
Attorney General: OK, but areyou the grandson of MirzaQadiyani?
Mirza Nasir: Yes, I amthe son of the son.
Attorney General: Introduce yourself.
Mirza Nasir: I have heard that Iwas bornon 16th ofNovember 1909.
Mian Gul Aurangzeb: Wecannot hear you.
Chairman: Please set the mike and volume.
Mirza Nasir: My date of birth is 16th November 1909. I think there is a difference of a
few days in the matriculation record. I did my matriculation in 1931, B.A (graduation)
in 1934. Then I went abroad and did my PhD in 1938. I remained as the Principal of
“Ta’leem-ul-Islam College” Qadiyan and Rabwah from 1944 to 1965.InNovember 1965,
the Ahmadiagroup elected me their Imamthrough elections.
Attorney General: Now you arethe successor of MirzaQadiyani?
Mirza Nasir: That’s right.
Attorney General: And the Amir ulMomineenalso?
Mirza Nasir: Yes, yes!That also standsfor me.
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Attorney General: Rather Imam, Khalifa tul Muslimeen, Khalifa tul Masih, Amir ul
Momineen allthese areyour titles?
Mirza Nasir: Different people come and call me so. In fact I am Khalifah-tul-Maseeh-
ul-Salis,i.e. the thirdKhalifahof thepromisedMessiah.
Attorney General: Can different peopleholdthese three titlesseparately?
Mirza Nasir: No, onlya singleperson holds these three offices.
Attorney General: What do you meanby theAhmadia group?
Mirza Nasir: The people of Ahmadia group who have made the oath of allegiance on
the third Khalifah. There may be some Ahmadis, who do not make the oath, so we do
not recognize them, norare theyincludedinAhmadia Group.
Attorney General: By pointing out to those who do not make the oath, you mean the
Lahori group?
Mirza Nasir: Yes, but they are not our members.
Attorney General: It means they arenot the members ofAhmadiagroup?
Mirza Nasir: That’s right, the Ahmadia group, which is also sometimes, called
Mubaye’een.
Attorney General: What is total number of the members of that body which elects the
Imam or the Khalifa?
Mirza Nasir: I do not know the exact figure. There are different groups; the office
bearers of the group; amongst them those who have devoted their lives for the
Ahmadia group; district office bearers; those office bearers who joined the Ahmadia
group during Mirza’s lifetime and are still alive, they are all its permanent members.
Thereis an articlein thenewspaper AlFazal;I willsendit to you.
Attorney General: Thanks, but whether only these members out of the whole group can
vote in elections?
Mirza Nasir: No, there are more than hundred of our jama’ats (groups) in Lyalpur
(now Faisalabad);thereis anAmirof them,who is of course, thedistrict representative.
Attorney General: But the people ofthe time ofMirza?
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