Pakistani Senate Committee Stresses Printing Holy Quran Copies Error-Free
The committee held a meeting on Wednesday. Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari chaired the committee’s meeting, which was attended by Senator Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah, Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Anwar Lal Dean, Senator Sajid Mir, Senator Haji Hidayatullah Khan, Senator Danesh Kumar, and senior officers from the religious affairs ministry.
Matters including the publication of Holy Quran (Elimination of Printing and Recording Errors) (Amendment) Bill, 2022; details of expenditures incurred on Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hassan Abdal by Evacuee Trust Property Board; Hajj Policy 2023; report published in a local newspaper on alleged distortions in translations of the Holy Quran came under discussion during the meeting.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony briefed the committee that to safeguard the reverence of the Holy Quran, its “error-free publication” and sanctity of the used papers, the aforementioned draft law [(Elimination of Printing and Recording Errors) (Amendment) Bill, 20220)] was tabled.
The ministry recalled that the federal cabinet approved the draft of proposed law in 2018. The ministry said that after approval from the National Assembly in November, 2022, this bill was presented in the Senate in January this year.
Senator Sabir Shah said this bill was of a great importance, in which several points had to be added. He said some copies of the Holy Quran were printed on “sub-standard papers”.
“Besides taking care of sacred papers, it was also essential to stop using sub-standard papers as “printing mafia used sub-standard papers for publication of the Holy Quran for personal gains”, he alleged. He emphasized that in the proposed law, the use of the quality paper for the publication of the Holy Quran should be made mandatory.
To this, the ministry informed that the use of a quality standard paper was included, adding that at least 57 grams of paper would be used for publication of the Holy Quran under the proposed bill. The ministry further said such paper could not be used in the printing or publication of the Holy Quran writing on which was visible on the other side of the paper.
The committee besides presenting the paper samples directed to invite the secretaries of four provinces related to religious affairs ministries in the next meeting.
The committee chairman said the provinces would be consulted on the printing and publication of the Holy Quran and quality of the paper.
Source: app.com.pk
