KARACHI: Reports abound on social media that the PTI-led federal government has banned the use of mobile phones in madrassahs after the controversy of Mufti Aziz ur Rehman.
Taking to Twitter, a user, while quoting sources, wrote, “Mobile phones have been banned in Madrassahs after Mufti Aziz ur Rehman case surfaced.” However, these reports are false.
Mobile phones have been banned in madresahs after #muftiazizurrehman case surfaced.
What fresh hell is this @PTIofficial ?!— Annie (@aaminsann) June 20, 2021
The government has not announced any ban on the use of mobile phones in religious seminaries.
Earlier in the day, the Lahore police arrested Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman, booked for molesting a seminary student, from Mianwali. The cleric had been on the run after being booked on sexual assault charges.
The charges came after the assault survivor released a footage of Mufti Aziz assaulting him. The police on June 16 registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the 70-year-old on the survivor’s complaint.
Mufti Aziz, also the Lahore vice ameer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) at the time, had threatened to kill the survivor. The police reported to have arrested the cleric’s son Ateeq-ur-Rehman from Kahna and Altaf-ur-Rehman from Laki Marwat, while raids are underway to nab his third son Lateef-ur-Rehman and friend Abdullah.
The survivor maintained in the FIR that, “I was admitted into the madrassa in 2013 and had been attending it since. He blamed me for making another student take my exam due to which I was banned from giving exams with the Wafaqul Madrassa for three years.”
Shah further stated in his FIR that, “Mufti Aziz promised passing me in exams in exchange for keeping immoral relations with me.”
The complainant stated that the cleric and his sons – Altaf, Atique, Lateef – and three other individuals have been threatening to murder him for releasing the video.
A video message was also leaked with the footage by the teary-eyed survivor, in which he claims that: “My attacker’s sons have threatened to kill me for exposing him [Mufti Aziz]”.
