08-11-2006, 09:02 PM
Gem from Urdu press,
FT
Read plight of Hindus in Pakistan
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Irshad Haqqaniâs optimism</b>
Writing in Jang senior columnist Irshad Haqqani said that the decline of the Muslims had been much talked about but it had now completed its process and Islam had only to go up rather than further down. He accepted that even on the way there could be temporary backslidings like the Iran-Iraq war but the graph was now pointing upwards. He said he saw Islam finally becoming a force after including in its vision a number of modern elements through ijtihad.
<b>The âmissing peopleâ of Pakistan</b>
Writing in Daily Express Najam Sethi stated that on April 11, 2006 a member of the NGO Shehri, Nisar Baloch, disappeared after being summoned to Karachiâs Pak Colony police station. On April 4, Bahrain-based Baloch Television MD Muneer Mengal disappeared from Jinnah Airport and has not been seen since. Dr Naqibullah Durrani, an Afghan national and an employee of the Afghan Dutch Community, came to Pakistan in February to attend a workshop at Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam. He disappeared on March 13. Prominent Baloch poet and writer Dr Haneef Shareef has been missing since last November after he was picked up by an intelligence agency in Turbat on November 18. Ali Asghar Bangalzai disappeared in 2001 and Hafiz Saeed Bangalzai in 2003. The families of brothers Ibrahim and Ghulam Saleh, Noor Mohammad Marri, Mir Ahmad Marri and Jamand Khan Marri â all below 18 - say their kin were hauled up by the intelligence agencies. Seven BLA activists, including its chairman Dr Imdad Baloch, and President Dr Allah Nazir, were taken from a Karachi flat, interrogated and tortured last year. Safdar Sarki, a Sindhi-American who once belonged to the Jeay Sindh movement and returned to Pakistan from America a year ago, disappeared from Karachi. His driver, Munir Sarki, told the press and the Sindh High Court that he saw Safdar blind-folded, handcuffed and beaten up in his apartment in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and then whisked away by âagency menâ.
<b>God came to the house of âkiriâ (ant)</b>
Senior columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in Daily Express that once bhagwan (god) came to the house of a kiri (ant) and that was when Dr AQ Khan came to attend the walima ceremony of Abdul Qadir Hassanâs son in Soan Valley in the Salt Range. Dr AQ Khan came to the village to attend the ceremony and sat on a sofa. Mr Hassan at once put a cloth on the sofa and preserved it as a relic and let no one sit on it in future. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Hindus canât burn corpses in Lahore</b>
Daily Khabrain reported that the Hindus of Lahore protested that there was no shamshan ghat (place of incineration) for the dead bodies of their community. They had to take the corpses to Peshawar and Sialkot where the ghats were available. They had to bury them provisionally (imanat) at first if they were not able to take them immediately out of Lahore. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>âMuslims will take a century to become good!â</b>
Columnist Munir Ahmad Munir wrote in Daily Express that the legal adviser of Jinnah NM Kotwal once said to Jinnah that since he thought that the Muslims of India suffered mainly from flaws of character it might take them 20 years to correct themselves after independence. On this Jinnah disagreed and said it will take a hundred years for Muslims of Pakistan to correct their characters. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
FT
Read plight of Hindus in Pakistan
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Irshad Haqqaniâs optimism</b>
Writing in Jang senior columnist Irshad Haqqani said that the decline of the Muslims had been much talked about but it had now completed its process and Islam had only to go up rather than further down. He accepted that even on the way there could be temporary backslidings like the Iran-Iraq war but the graph was now pointing upwards. He said he saw Islam finally becoming a force after including in its vision a number of modern elements through ijtihad.
<b>The âmissing peopleâ of Pakistan</b>
Writing in Daily Express Najam Sethi stated that on April 11, 2006 a member of the NGO Shehri, Nisar Baloch, disappeared after being summoned to Karachiâs Pak Colony police station. On April 4, Bahrain-based Baloch Television MD Muneer Mengal disappeared from Jinnah Airport and has not been seen since. Dr Naqibullah Durrani, an Afghan national and an employee of the Afghan Dutch Community, came to Pakistan in February to attend a workshop at Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam. He disappeared on March 13. Prominent Baloch poet and writer Dr Haneef Shareef has been missing since last November after he was picked up by an intelligence agency in Turbat on November 18. Ali Asghar Bangalzai disappeared in 2001 and Hafiz Saeed Bangalzai in 2003. The families of brothers Ibrahim and Ghulam Saleh, Noor Mohammad Marri, Mir Ahmad Marri and Jamand Khan Marri â all below 18 - say their kin were hauled up by the intelligence agencies. Seven BLA activists, including its chairman Dr Imdad Baloch, and President Dr Allah Nazir, were taken from a Karachi flat, interrogated and tortured last year. Safdar Sarki, a Sindhi-American who once belonged to the Jeay Sindh movement and returned to Pakistan from America a year ago, disappeared from Karachi. His driver, Munir Sarki, told the press and the Sindh High Court that he saw Safdar blind-folded, handcuffed and beaten up in his apartment in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and then whisked away by âagency menâ.
<b>God came to the house of âkiriâ (ant)</b>
Senior columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in Daily Express that once bhagwan (god) came to the house of a kiri (ant) and that was when Dr AQ Khan came to attend the walima ceremony of Abdul Qadir Hassanâs son in Soan Valley in the Salt Range. Dr AQ Khan came to the village to attend the ceremony and sat on a sofa. Mr Hassan at once put a cloth on the sofa and preserved it as a relic and let no one sit on it in future. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Hindus canât burn corpses in Lahore</b>
Daily Khabrain reported that the Hindus of Lahore protested that there was no shamshan ghat (place of incineration) for the dead bodies of their community. They had to take the corpses to Peshawar and Sialkot where the ghats were available. They had to bury them provisionally (imanat) at first if they were not able to take them immediately out of Lahore. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <b>âMuslims will take a century to become good!â</b>
Columnist Munir Ahmad Munir wrote in Daily Express that the legal adviser of Jinnah NM Kotwal once said to Jinnah that since he thought that the Muslims of India suffered mainly from flaws of character it might take them 20 years to correct themselves after independence. On this Jinnah disagreed and said it will take a hundred years for Muslims of Pakistan to correct their characters. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->