THANKS to Almighty! In the Mubarak Sani controversial case, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa of the Supreme Court has deleted the impugned paragraphs 7, 42 and 49c from the decisions of 6 February 2024 and 24 July 2024. Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa declared the decision to grant religious freedom to the Qadianis null and void and said that if any mistake is made by us, it should also be rectified. The court has advised Mufti Taqi Usmani, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mufti Sher Muhammad and other scholars present in the court to take assistance. We are thankful to Allah that in the All-Party Conference organized by the International Assembly of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat, the belief of Khatma_e_Nabuwwat and the constitution and law of Pakistan.
In the great work of foiling a deep plot against the law and constitution. Similarly, my opinion was also included, which is a matter of great honour. Especially Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani deserve appreciation. The Mubarak Sani case was related to stopping the publication of the distorted Quran. On February 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a decision on the Qadiani citizen’s petition, on which revision petitions were also filed by the Punjab government, the plaintiff and other parties. On July 24, 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the previous decision in the revised decision. However, after looking at all the facts, evidence, matters of the case, past decisions related to it and the collected reports of other institutions, the court order in the light of Quran and Sunnah.
There are several issues which, if the honorable court corrects them, the anxiety of the public against this issue would be over. On the issue of religious rights of Ahmadis, the decision of the Federal Sharia Court in the case of Mujibur Rehman v. Government of Pakistan. The decision of a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the case of the state has the importance of mandatory precedents. The court sought the opinion of ten institutions, including the Islamic Ideolog Council, which rejected the decision and made recommendations to correct the decree in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah, the Constitution of Pakistan and the law. Four points were mentioned and rejected without any argument.
According to the FIR filed by Hasan Muawiya, the plaintiff, in 2019, Qadiani Mubarak Ahmed Sani distributed the banned book, Tafseer Sagheer, which is a blatant violation of 295B and 293C of the Constitution of Pakistan and the Quran Act, 2011. Principal Mubarak Ahmad Sani distorted Quran Tafsir Sagheer, translation of Quran Mirza Tahir Ahmed, translation of Quran Mir Muhammad Ishaq, Sadah Lo is active in fulfilling his heinous goals by teaching children their brainwashing. Notification SO.IS..111.2010 of Pakistan was issued in the year 2016. But despite this, the accused who published it were teaching the distorted translation of Holy Quran under the supervision of Director of Publication Malik Khalid Masood, Director of Education, Mirza Afzal Ahmad. Accused Mubarak Sani is the principal and teacher of two institutions who is involved in the unconstitutional and illegal work of preaching and teaching this distorted Mushaf not only as a preacher but also as a trainer. This act of the accused is a crime in Section 7 of the Punjab Holy Act, 2011. Even when the application was made in 2019, it was still a crime for which the punishment is listed in Section 9 of the same law. Not from but from a group or groups as per Article 260(3)(b) of the Constitution.
The question is, was the use of the word “prohibited book” instead of the distorted Holy Quran not an attempt to take the case out of the scope of 295b and 298C? Article 4 of the Constitution requires that the issue be resolved in accordance with law. The petitioner was arrested on 7 January 2023. The FIR was registered on December 6, 2022, while the offense was allegedly committed on March 7, 2019, and no explanation was given for the delay. The delay in the trial shows the power of the accused, negligence, weakness or malice of the local administration.
After observing this whole case in depth, it came out that the semantically distorted Mushaf of the Holy Quran has been declared as a prohibited book, as is evident from the decree. However, no prohibited book is impeachable under the Holy Quran Act, 2011. The Qur’an Act 2011 is only related to the distortion and printing of the Qur’an. The relevant laws for banned books are impeachable under Section 8 and Section 11W of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The semantic distortion of the Holy Quran is clearly an insult to the Holy Quran, so the Punjab government has banned it since 2016. It is clear from the FIR of this case, the reports of the Punjab Quran Board that the crimes mentioned in 295C, all of them were done by the accused. Paragraph 49 of the revision decision of 24 July 2024 is the decision of the practical implementation of the entire case. According to which the decision of 6 February 2024 is also in effect. While in the Mujeebur Rehman case and Zaheeruddin cases, Qadianis cannot declare themselves Muslims in any private or public place, nor are they allowed to use the rituals of Islam. While in the Mubarak Sani case, they were allowed to do so in private places. Therefore, the Mubarak Sani case contradicts the earlier decisions.
In paragraph 7, it was written that “In the FIR, the accused has been mentioned under Section 295B of the Penal Code, but the mere mention of any statutory provision is not sufficient to make the accused liable for the offense under this section.” In paragraph 42, it was written that the details of the constitutional and legal provisions and judicial precedents proved that after declaring the two groups of Ahmadis as non-Muslims, they were allowed to practice their religion according to the constitution and law and express it and their right to preach comes with the condition that he will not use the religious terms of Muslims in public, nor present himself as a Muslim in public. Under the disputed text in paragraph no. 6, the petitioner distributed Tafsir Sagheer and some other books.
While the Supreme Court asked the opinion of the institutions, they explained in their opinion that this distorted translation falls under the category of distortion of the Quran. In the contents of the IR, the accusation of insulting the Quran was neither directly nor indirectly taken, and the place where the banned book was distributed was the Ahmadiyya institution. Therefore, Section 298C of the Penal Code cannot be applied to the act. If this is accepted, it means that Qadianis can preach as Muslims in their private place and can make distortions in Islam, which is violation of Article 31 of the Constitution of Pakistan along with flagrant violation of 260 and 298C.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
