Peshawar; May 3, 2023: We regret to report that KP Bar Council, under the chairmanship of Syed Mubashir Shah Advocate decided in their Executive Committee that in future all new-entrants will submit an anti-Ahmadiyya affidavit on the issue of End of Prophethood, along with their Intimation Form. In the past, same other bar associations in the country had also undertaken such regressive steps. These included associations from Multan, Islamabad, Gujranwala etc.
The affidavit to be filled in by the applicants includes the following (as translated below from Urdu):
“I swear that I am Muslim and believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of Khatam an Nabiyyen Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the last of the prophets. I do not recognize any person who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or any description whatsoever after Muhammad (peace be upon him) or recognize such a claimant as prophet or a religious reformer or a Muslim. I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani to be an imposter and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori or Qadiani group to be non-Muslim.”
Such measures adopted by the bar council are all the more undesirable and even condemnable as bar councils represent a section of the civil society but is far more educated than the average and are expected to be sensitive to the issues of freedom of belief and human rights. To deny membership to an applicant who is otherwise fully qualified but has a slightly different understanding of End of Prophethood is obviously unsupportable, senseless, even ridiculous. Also relevant is the consideration that these bodies, unlike political parties, are not constrained by considerations of voting and religious sentiments of common man.
KP is the proud land, which produced great men like Qari Abdur Rashid, Zaheeruddin Babar, Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Mashal Khan, etc. The advocates from this historic land should not permit themselves to be misled by mullas of 14th/15th century Hijrah.
