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| 2004-12-18 |
| Aslam Khatak invented 'Pakistan' Columnist Dr Anwar Sadeed stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that inventor of the name Pakistan was not Chaudhry Rehmat Ali but Muhammad Aslam Khan Khatak when he was chairman of Khyber Union of Students at Oxford. Khatak made this claim in 1987 saying that the credit was wrongly given to Chaudhry Rehmat Ali who had nothing to do with the name of the country. At the time when he announced his invention at the session of the Union at Oxford, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali and Khwaja Abdur Rahim were present. He said he had signed the Now or Never statement which came out as a booklet but Khwaja Abdur Rahim had not signed it. The columnist added that another eyewitness Abdul Haq had claimed in 1970 that the inventor of the name was Khwaja Abdur Rahim who had thought it up during a walk with Pir Ahsanuddin and Chaudhry Rehmat Ali along the Thames in 1932. Al Qaeda agents held in Lahore According to Jang, Race Course Road police in Lahore accidentally came upon two motorbike riders carrying explosive material. The two then led the police to Habibullah Road adjacent old Davis Road where the police arrested Gul Rehman of Afghanistan, Khan Bahadur of Darra Adam Khel, Arshad Ali of Okara and Mudassar of Lahore. All of then had taken training in Afghanistan. The police recovered two motorbikes from Habibullah Road, 32 time devices, 26 batteries, 24 detonators and 32 bombs in all. The plan was to disperse the explosives in the city with time devices and cause a lot of havoc. Kashmir is not ours! According to Nawa-e-Waqt, Pir Pagaro said that Kashmir was not Pakistan's, never was and never would be. He said he had said it long ago and was willing to restate his position. He said he was with the government but not with the political party running the government. The Night of Power Writing in Khabrain Masood Khan Niazi stated that Lailat al-Qadr was the night on 27th Ramadhan when the Quran was taken from the Loh-e-Mefooz and given to angel Gabriel who was ordered to take it to Prophet Muhammad PBUH. The night was declared sacred by Allah in Sura al-Qadr in the Holy Quran. As to the exact time, most people think it is 27th of Ramadhan but Allah did not wish to pinpoint it, therefore, He spread it over the last ten days of Ramadhan so that the faithful keep on praying for ten days. A tradition says that Night of Power fell on the odd dates of the last ten days (ashra) of Ramadhan. According to daily Din, the angels were created on the Night of Power and the matter that made up Adam began to be put together. The trees of Paradise were also created on this night. Christ was raised to Heaven on this night and the Jews were forgiven by Allah on this night. This night was equal to one thousand nights of worship. 'Qadr' means power and fortune because on this night Allah fashions the fortune of all humanity. On this night angels come down to earth in such numbers that earth becomes too narrow for them. 'Qadr' also means narrow. According to another tradition Prophet Muhammad PBUH was grieved over the fact that earlier nations were given long lives but the Muslims had shorter lives. Allah favoured him and gave the Muslim the Night of Power so that the Muslims could make up for time lost with prayer. Chained boy dies under train According to Juhud-e-Haq monthly in its November issue an 11-year old boy named Fida Hussain was chained along with other boys in a local madrasa in Lodhran. The cleric who ran the seminary, Maulavi Zahoor, inflicted a lot of cruelty on them. One day they fled the madrasa along with their chains but were soon tired by the weight of the chains. They thought of breaking the chains under a train. But when the train ran over the chains Fida Muhammad was sent rolling under the train and died on the spot. Maulavi Zahoor was saved by the police after bribe. Musharraf's plan should be in museum Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, ex-army chief Aslam Beg stated that the new plan on Kashmir by President Musharraf was so strange that it should be placed in a museum. He said he had now become aware that Musharraf would not take off his uniform. He said a movement against him will have to be ordered from outside just as Ayub Khan and Bhutto were removed by movements ordered from outside. He said Bush Administration was a collection of fools (ahmaqon ka tola) and now the Muslims of the world will have to get united to prevent the savagery (barnbariyat) of Bush. Yasser Arafat tried to rescue Bhutto According to Mushahid Hussain Syed in Nawa-e-Waqt, Yasser Arafat in an interview of 1990 said that he was particularly drawn to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto because he had welcomed the PLO at the 1974 Islamic Summit in Lahore. He said he had appealed to General Zia not to kill Bhutto but to no avail. He then tried to rescue Bhutto during his trial while on his way from jail to the courthouse. He had charged his PLO military attaché in Islamabad to whisk him away and bring him out through Afghanistan but shockingly the colonel charge died suddenly before he could carry out the rescue. Top jobs with Urdu-speakers Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, ex-army chief Aslam Beg said that the posts of president, army chief and chief justice were held in Pakistan by Urdu-speaking persons and therefore it was incorrect on the part of MQM leader Altaf Hussain to say that the Urdu-speaking community was not properly represented in Pakistan. (He did not say that the posts of president and army chief were being filled by one and the same man.) How bustards are killed by Arabs Sunday magazine of Jang wrote that in 2002 Prince Fahd from the Arab world had come down to Dalbandin in Balochistan to kill the rare and endangered bird tilor or houbara bustard which the Arabs eat for sexual power. A big transport plane landed on an improvised airport, a tent with golden thread-work was set up and dozens of local servants with hawks on their arms walked around. Inside the tent local grandees including Balochistan wildlife minister Jam Akbar Ali were waiting upon the prince. Much wine was flowing which was mostly imbibed by Pakistani grandees who were used to heavy drinking. Out in the cold desert eight young bustards walked tentatively on the sand and took flight when approached by a truck. In one month's stay the Arab prince killed 3,000 bustard. Local people were not benefited for any long period. The airport was of no use to them. One mosque was an addition that they did not need and two generators donated to them were also in disrepair because the local people could not [maintain] them. Hindus being abducted in Sindh According to Juhud-e-Haq monthly in its November issue Sindh National Party protested in Shadadpur against the abduction of the Hindus in two months. Kapil Dev was kidnapped from Clifton on 24 August in front of his school and was not found. Dr Nanak Ram was threatened with abduction till he ran away to India. Bhagat Ram and Santosh Kumar too were not recovered. Sindh National Party went on hunger strike for them in Larkana. Imprisoned for writing 786! Monthly Juhud-e-Haq recorded in its November 2004 issue that in Mirpur Khas 15 persons of Ahmedi community were hauled up under section 298-C for writing 786 on their wedding cards. Those put behind bars included three brides and their bridegrooms. The wedding cards also contained such incriminating words as As-Salam-o-Alaikam and Insha Allah and Marhoom. When a welfare organisation visited the affected Ahmedis at their homes it found them completely terrorised and their houses locked. Beware of Hamid Gul! Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, secretary general of Muslim League Mushahid Hussain Syed stated that in 1989 when Yasser Arafat came to Pakistan and learned that Ms Bhutto's government was allowing ISI chief Hameed Gul to launch the Jalalabad Operation, and that Afghanistan would fall 'this Ramadhan' he laughed in derision. He told Ms Bhutto to beware of two generals, Hameed Gul because he was too ambitious and General Naseerullah Babar because he was too saada (simple). Yasser Arafat also said that he could be of no help to Pakistan over Kashmir because he could not offend India. Benazir blows hot and cold with Shaukat Aziz Quoted in daily Pakistan, industrialist Shahzada Alam Munnoo said that in 1996 Ms Bhutto tried to put Shimon Peres of Israel and Yasser Arafat together at Davos but Shimon Peres for some reason did not turn up and Arafat too went out of the session after some time. In his seat, Ms Bhutto asked Citibank chief Shaukat Aziz to sit instead. Shaukat Aziz told Munnoo that earlier in the day she was angry with him but by evening she was happy with him enough to give him Arafat's seat. Blasphemer deemed innocent after four years According to Khabrain journalist Munawwar Mohsin who was under life imprisonment after an insulting email was published inadvertently in The Frontier Post Peshawar, was freed by Peshawar High Court because it found him not guilty. The offence was committed in 2001 and an emotional sessions judge had given a stiff sentence for a crime committed inadvertently. It took four years for an innocent man to get off the hook. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 The story of bustard hunting epitomizes the Arab world, if you ask me. Something there for everyone. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-12-18 3:39:36 PM |
| #4 Remind me never to mess with Fred. Jeeeeezus! I just don't know. I'd like to think this is a Fred thing... but I don't know. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-18 2:06:31 PM |
| #3 The story of the chained boy dying under a train was something else. And just think, most all of that madarassas misery was brought to by Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-12-18 11:53:35 AM |
| #2 I'm thinking about a summer home in the Urdu. If I take about 50 hits of mescaline a day, I figure I'll fit right in. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-18 10:46:29 AM |
| #1 mmmmm tasty McNuggets, Fred. Life in prison for an insulting email, huh? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-18 10:36:45 AM |