...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
Fazal (JUI-F) Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri
...Central Secretary General of JUI-F, member of the Pak senate, formerly provincial minister of Balochistan. He has a master's degree in Islam and runs a madrassah...
on Wednesday announced that he will boycott meetings of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology if in camera meetings are held to discuss a proposed law seeking equal punishments for those convicted of blasphemy and those who make false accusations of blasphemy.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill 2018 was moved on the directions of Islamabad High Court after Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ordered last year during a case that those who make false accusations of blasphemy should be given the same punishment as those convicted of blasphemy.
The bill was later prepared by the government and was referred by the upper house to the committee for discussion.
Chaired by Senator Rubina Khalid, the committee decided not to discuss the bill in the absence of Information Technology Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who tabled the bill in Senate but Senator Haideri still started discussing the issue.
"The matter is being discussed in the religious circles and we are of the view that such kinds of bills should not be passed. Many people register baseless cases of theft, robberies and other crimes and people are killed in the main markets but the aggrieved families cannot prove murder because witnesses refuse to record their statements in the court," Mr Haideri said.