ISLAMABAD: The government has announced to observe Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran on July 7 (Friday) to hold countrywide protests demonstrations against the desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden and convene a joint parliamentary session a day earlier.
The decision was made on in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif here to discuss the issue of the desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden.
It merits mention that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamat-i-Islami (JI) and other religious and political parrties have already announced to hold protest demonstrations across country on Friday.
It was decided that protest rallies would be held on Friday across the country to condemn the act. The prime minister appealed to the nation, including all the political parties, to participate in the protest to convey a united message to the mischievous minds.
Besides, the government would also convene a joint session of the parliament on July 6 to formulate a national strategy on the issue and represent the nation’s sentiments and feelings through the parliamentary forum.
The joint session would also adopt a resolution to condemn the desecration of the Holy Quran.
The prime minister, also the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, instructed the party to participate in the Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran and hold countrywide rallies.
He told the meeting that the sanctity of the Holy Quran was a part of the Muslims’ belief for which all of them were united.
He said that the astray minds were toeing a nefarious agenda of fanning the negative trend of Islamophobia.
Prime Minister Shehbaz said that nations and leadership believing in peace and co-existence should contain the violent forces infested by the Islamophobia and religious biases.
He believed that the violent mindset targeting the religion, sacred personalities, beliefs and ideologies were in fact the enemies of the world peace.
He said that the forces believing in peace and interfaith harmony should play their role at the international level to get rid of such negative trends.
‘Urgent UN meeting’
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council has called an urgent meeting on Quran desecration incident on Pakistan’s request.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which is meeting in session until July 14, will change its agenda to stage an urgent debate, following a request from Pakistan.
“The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred, as manifested by the current desecration of the holy Quran in some European and other countries’,” council spokesman Pascal Sim told reporters, citing the wording of the request.
“This urgent debate will be convened following a request of Pakistan, sent on behalf of several members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, including those that are members of the Human Rights Council.
“The urgent debate will most likely be convened this week at a date and time to be determined by the bureau of the Human Rights Council that is meeting today.”
