LAHORE: Ex-senator Maulana Samiul Haq has demanded Sindh Assembly should be dissolved and the province be placed under governor’s rule because it has enacted legislation “conflicting with the Quran, the Sunnah and the Constitution of Pakistan, which was tantamount to rebellion”.

The chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) made the demand here on Monday at a press conference, saying a meeting of his party’s central executive committee expressed concern over the latest legislation by Sindh Assembly, barring any non-Muslim under 18 years of age from converting to Islam.

After a meeting of the party’s central executive committee, he said the same law also barred the adults converting to Islam from declaring their new faith before a mandatory period of 21 days.

The Maulana chided the Sindh Assembly members for, what he called, crossing all limits of following western agenda aimed at changing the Islamic and constitutional identity of Pakistan. He said the party was chalking out a plan to launch a movement against Sindh government.

Welcoming the new army chief, Gen Qamar Bajwa, Mr Haq said daunting challenges awaited the new COAS. He demanded the new army chief should change the direction of Zarb-i-Azb and National Action Plan, focusing on political, state and foreign terrorism.

He said the government should convey a clear message to India that it was playing with fire by escalating the border tension.

He criticised the policy of targeting the academic, curricular and financial independence of Islamic seminaries in the name of operations against terrorism.

He said foreign intervention in Balochistan should be crushed with an iron hand to free the province and the country of terrorism.

Forced expulsion of the Afghan refugees should be stopped and a rational policy should be framed for the purpose, he demanded. “The tribal population displaced due to military operations should be repatriated immediately and honorably,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2016