LAHORE: The Constitution is the best guarantee of national unity and harmony but a disqualified person is talking of amending it, says Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq.

Speaking at the flag-hoisting ceremony on the Independence Day here on Monday at Mansoora, he said neither any general nor any political leader was the binding force behind national unity and it was the Constitution that was keeping the people and provinces together. Hundreds of JI workers and youth besides the party leadership attended the impressive ceremony charged with emotions.

Stating that Pakistan was like a mother, he said the leaders and workers of the Jamaat would protect the country “till the last drop of blood in their veins and till the last breath.”

He said those talking of amending articles 62 and 63 [of the Constitution] should instead clean their own faces. He made it clear that nobody would be allowed to make the Constitution “a toy for personal agenda.”He said the JI had begun the drive [against corruption] during the life of the late Qazi Husain Ahmed and “by now it has become the demand of the entire nation.” As Muslims, the Pakistanis were supposed to teach other nations honesty and truthfulness “but the situation is otherwise and we are known for our corruption and dishonesty,” he said.

The JI chief urged the people to renew their pledge that they would strive for the supremacy of the Quran and the Sunnah that ensured end to corruption and cheating.

Speaking on the occasion, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said independence was a great blessing [of Allah] and the nation should be thankful for having an independent country. He said Pakistan had been achieved according to the vision of Allama Iqbal by dint of the untiring efforts of Quaid-i-Azam.

He said founder of the JI, Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi, presented to the nation the model of an Islamic state and it was due to the efforts of the religious forces that the historic Objectives Resolution was adopted that provided the founding principles of the country’s polity. The Objectives Resolution laid down the principle that the Holy Quran and the Sunnah would be the supreme law in the country.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017