In an apparent attempt to target the Ahmadi minority community, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has made it compulsory for all new lawyers seeking a license to sign a Finality of Prophethood affidavit along with their application.
The decision was taken in a meeting of KP Bar Council’s executive committee. The meeting was presided over by the bar council’s chairman Syed Mubashir Shah.
During the meeting, it was decided that the new lawyers would declare they do not belong to any “Qadiani or Lahori group (who attribute themselves to Ahmadi or any other group),” reported Aaj English.
The council issued a sample declaration certificate after the meeting.
According to the certificate, the relevant lawyer would declare that he/she solemnly swear that he/she believes in the absolute and complete finality of the Prophethood of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH). The lawyer will also declare that he/she is not follower of anyone, who claims to be a prophet in any sense of words or of any description whatsoever after Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Declared non-Muslims in Pakistan, the Ahmadis face social and legal discrimination with growing incidents of attacks on their worship places, as well as desecration of their graves reported this year.
Last week, Karachi police had arrested an Ahmadi lawyer for using ‘Syed’ as a prefix in his name, after registering a second First Information Report (FIR) against him over the same charges.
Earlier, an Ahmadi lawyer who defends members of the community accused of blasphemy, was attacked with a cleaver by a man associated with Madrasa Khatm-e-Nabuwat, in his chamber in district Chiniot.