In light of the news articles published by some news websites, we wish to address and clarify the context surrounding the visit of the 66th Regular Shariah course for Judges, Qazis, Attorneys, Prosecutors, and Law officers of the Sharī‘ah Academy to the Council of Islamic Ideology on 01/11/2024.

The image published by these websites depicting the visit of the Director-General of the Sharī‘ah Academy along with the participants of the 66th-course members to the CII has been mistakenly linked to the CII’s announcement declaring the usage of VPN. We want to make it unequivocally clear that this visit had no connection with the said CII’s announcement which didn’t contain such image, nor was the subject of VPNs discussed during the meeting.

The purpose of the visit was to give the participants of the 66th course an orientation on the Council of Islamic Ideology and its role according to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. We deeply regret any confusion that may have arisen from the misrepresentation of the meeting’s context.

Furthermore, the Academy would also wish to clarify that it doesn’t have any connection to the Council of Islamic Ideology’s announcement regarding the status of VPNs nor was it consulted in such matter, and neither did the Council’s press release include any such claim. It is pertinent to mention that Sharī‘ah Academy is an Academic and Training institution with a mandate to train the legal fraternity in Islamic Law, the Academy does not issue any opinion regarding any points of Islamic Law.