Pakistan - News and Discussion -7

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Whiff of change?</b>

There’s a whiff of change in the air. Rumour has it that plans for a neutral-looking caretaker government are being drawn up. Our mole reports that the real PM’s spies have been calling up some would-be caretakers across the land to sound them out if and when the time is ripe. It is not known how many have agreed to join the coalition of the willing or when such a set-up will be required
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Nuggets from the Urdu press
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Clergy threatens to hit the roads</b>
According to Khabrain Jamaat Ahle Sunnat announced that it had come into possession of an obscure CD from a singer of India which carried the name Ya Ali! In the song also the singer keeps shouting Ya Ali which was an insult to the Great Companion. Chief of Ahle Sunnat Mufti Maqsud thundered that the government should punish the Indian singer quickly or Ahle Sunnat followers will hit the streets and destroy property and thus punish the government.  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<b>Jonty Rhodes asked to embrace Islam</b>
According to daily Pakistan when South African fielding expert Jonty Rhodes was coaching the Pakistan cricket team in Lahore he was asked to embrace Islam. He was taken to Raiwind where he listened to the sermons of the clerics in rapt attention. The man who worked on him was Pakistan’s top batsmen Muhammad Yusuf who used to be Christian. Yusuf was keen that Jonty Rhodes should become a Muslim even if the Pakistani cricketers did not become good fielders. 

<b>Motiur Rehman was ‘ghaddaar’</b>
Daily Pakistan reported Nawaz League as saying that that the remains of pilot trainer Motiur Rehman should not have been sent to Bangladesh where the dead man had earned the highest bravery award. Rehman was a ghaddaar and was responsible for the martyrdom of Nishan-e-Haider air force pilot Rashid Minhas while trying to escape to India in 1971. League leader Zulfiqar Khosa said the return of the dead body had thrown the heroism of Minhas in doubt.

<b>Lashkar Islami lays down the law</b>
According to Khabrain Lashkar Islami of the rebel warrior Mangal Bagh Afridi in occupation of Bara in Khyber Agency had laid down the law that anyone not saying his namaz in the mosque would pay a fine of Rs 500; anyone singing or playing music would be fined Rs 10,000 and anyone found with alcohol would pay Rs 50,000. Anyone opposing Lashkar Islami would be fined Rs one million. Those not saying namaz would be forced to spend three days in Tablighi Jamaat.

<b>Umar Abdullah’s ‘haram murghi’</b>Sarerahe stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that Held Kashmir leader Umar Abdullah had said that he enjoyed eating chicken (murghi) which was not slaughtered the Islamic way (jhatka). Sarerahe rejoined that his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah became ghaddaar and Umar had eaten haram murghi. His father Farooq Abdullah had married a Christian and Umar’s sister had married a Hindu, all of which was pleasure from haram things.
 
<b>Death for not saying namaz</b>
Reported in Jang founder of Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia Sheikh Abdullah Ali announced in Mogadishu that anyone not seen to be saying namaz would be considered a renegade from Islam and be killed. He was establishing a new Islamic court when he asserted that Islamic law gave death to those not saying namaz. He said only with Islamic law will prosperity come to Somalia.

<b>Musharraf, Nawaz and Kargil</b>
Quoting from a recently published book daily Pakistan had ex-military secretary of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Brigadier Javed Malik saying that Nawaz Sharif promoted Musharraf to meet the plaint of the Urdu-speaking community that their sons were not being promoted and because Musharraf had no biradari. Musharraf presented a wrong picture of Kargil which had begun even as Nawaz Sharif was shaking hands with prime minister Vajpayee in Lahore. Musharraf said his hand was on the gullet of India. Kargil was a misadventure of Generals Musharraf, Aziz and Mahmood. When Nawaz Sharif asked Musharraf what if the Indians did not back down, he was told that Indians could not afford to risk confrontation.

<b>Qadianis making their own state!</b>
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt clerics of Khatm Nabuwwat movement had gathered in Chiniot and strongly protested that the Qadianis of Chenab Nagar had started constructing a state of their own by buying up new land and putting barbed wire around it. They accused them of converting the surrounding population and carrying out secret activities.

<b>JUI and Jamaat Islami divorced or separated?</b>
Writing in Daily Express Asar Chohan stated that a kind of divorce was gradually taking place between the JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat Islam of Qazi Hussain Ahmad. It was difficult to say if it was a talaq raj’i (reversible) or mughallaz (wrong but permanent). There was a history of differences between the two parties. The founder of JUI and father of the present leader, Mufti Mehmood, had issued a fatwa against Maulana Maududi for insulting the Companions. After Maududi supported Ms Fatima Jinnah, Mufti Mehmood denounced it and supported Ayub Khan.
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