Pakistan army has termed the recent controversy about induction of Ahmadis in the armed forces "irrelevant" and clarified that there is no bar on recruitment from any specific school of thought. Sources in the army told Business Recorder on Friday that the army recruits from all sects and religions including Christians, Sikhs and Ahmadis which makes it the best example of national integration.

There is no law that bars induction of Ahmadis in the armed forces but the issue may come under discussion only if parliament enacts a law restricting recruitment of Ahmadis in the armed forces, sources added.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Tuesday, PML-N member Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd), son-in-law of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, urged the government to ban recruitment of Ahmadis in the armed forces and at key positions in other departments like Atomic Energy Commission.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has clarified in an interview that his government does not support the statement of Captain Safdar (retd), but the controversy continues to rage.

PML-N senator Professor Sajid Mir in November 2016, at a time when the government was contemplating the replacement of General Raheel Sharif as chief of army staff, had claimed that General Qamar Javed Bajwa had Ahmadi relatives.

Military sources told this correspondent that the army had ignored Mir's statement but at present is engaged in not only easing anger amongst the ranks but also proactively countering any move to create divisions within the army ranks.

Captain Safdar's recent tirade in the National Assembly could also be an attempt to dilute pressure the government is facing from religious clerics for omitting the status of Ahmadis as non-Muslims from the Elections Bill 2017 and later restoring it without fixing the responsibility for what the government called a "clerical mistake," sources further contended.

In his speech in the National Assembly, Safdar also called for renaming the Quaid-e-Azam University's Physics Department which currently bears the name of Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam.

The renaming of the physics centre was approved in December 2016 by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who also approved a grant of five annual fellowships for Pakistani PhD students titled Professor Abdus Salam Fellowship. When contacted, PML-N senator Professor Sajid Mir declined to comment on the issue, saying that he was in a meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017