Saudis arrest 40 Pakistani ChristiansAccording to the daily Pakistan, Saudi police arrested 40 men, women and children from a house in Riyadh while they were in the process of praying. The Saudi police took the position that one priest was actually preaching Christianity, which is banned in the Kingdom. Nawa-e-Waqt editorialised that Christians must have got into Riyadh by using false Muslim names. There was a trend in Pakistan that Christians were using Muslim names. That is why it was important to declare religion in the passport, so that Christians and Qadianis would not be able to get into Saudi Arabia by deceit.
Woman stoned in Badakhshan
Writing in the daily Pakistan, Tanvir Qaiser Shahid stated that in President Karzai's Afghanistan, a judge in the province of Badakhshan had awarded the sentence of being stoned to death, to a woman accused of fornication. The woman was seen entering the house of a man, after which another man locked the house from the outside and called in witnesses. The judge awarded death to the woman and 100 lashes to the man. The woman was duly stoned and killed.
Is a test tube baby an act of 'zina'?
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, the Lahore High Court acquired the services of the famous pro-blasphemy law lawyer Ismail Qureshi to resolve the issue of test tube babies. The matter before the court was: is a test tube baby Islamic? Another question was that when two unrelated persons produce a test tube baby, is it zina punishable by death in Islam?
Muslims and electric shocks from God
Columnist Hamid Sultan wrote in the Nawa-e-Waqt that Pakistan's economy was being run on rules made in America. Zakat was being taken from the poor but there was no zakat on property, and therefore the rich who did not keep savings accounts were exempted from zakat. He stated that the Holy Quran had clear rules about the rise and fall of nations, but God was not in despair about Muslims. He was simply administering shocks to them, just as patients who are expected to live are given electric shocks.
Islamic Council on Basant and St Valentine's Day
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, the Council for Islamic Ideology recommended that the government should not take part in two festivals: Basant because it was a Hindu festival, and Valentine's Day because it was a non-Islamic festival. The Council said that some members of the Council were of the opinion that Basant was a seasonal festival and not a Hindu festival, but the majority called it a Hindu festival. The Council rejected Basant on the analogy of Jewish rejection of the fast of 10th Muharram. Only two festivals were allowed in Islam: the two Eids.
Slaves of English!
Reported by the Nawa-e-Waqt, an ex-vice chancellor of the University of the Punjab said that Pakistanis used to be slaves of 'the English,' now they were slaves of English. He added that Urdu should be made a compulsory language, after which English could be learned as a second language. He said religious seminaries were being neglected.
Second marriage shouldn't be punished
According to Khabrain, lawyers were divided on the recent judicial opinion that those who marry again without the consent of the first wife should be punished with a fine and ten years in jail. The Islamists said that a second marriage was a right, and permission from the first wife was not needed. Other lawyers thought that the consent of the first wife was already a law and should be obeyed. They said 80 per cent of all second marriages were unsuccessful. Lady lawyers said that polygamy had become a fashion.
Rao Sikandar versus the Punjab government
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, federal defence minister Rao Sikandar lost his cool when at Okara, the Punjab government tried to prevent him from going close to President Musharraf. He felt insulted and punched an SSP on the stage. Later the Punjab government held an inquiry against the SSP but found the defence minister culpable of bad behaviour.
Sectarian violence in Gilgit
Writing in Khabrain, Sohail Zafar stated that federal education minister General (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi had put an end to a year-long violent fight in Gilgit by getting both parties (Shia and Sunni ulema) to agree that a different syllabus would be taught in Gilgit. The trouble started when in 1996, the government changed the separate syllabi for the two sects and forced them to read the same books. Gilgit went sect-crazy in the 1980s when jihadis entered the agency. They entered Sinkiang in China and caused bloodshed there, in addition to starting the sectarian war in Gilgit. Before the 2002 elections, the MMA sent its ulema to Gilgit where they aroused sectarian passions.
Ikhwan rising in Egypt
Writing in the Nawa-e-Waqt, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Idrees stated that Ikhwan al Muslimun was banned from taking part in elections in Egypt but it was making headway into elective institutions through anonymity. In the present parliament, there were at least 36 Ikhwan members without a party label. In recent elections to Cairo's bar council, the group of lawyers representing Ikhwan dominates, led by the son of the great Ikhwan founder, Hassan Al Banna, Saiful Islam Al Banna. Hafiz Idrees was perplexed by the Ikhwan leader Muhammad Habib, when he approved of Hosni Mubarak's son taking part in elections. America was now considering contacting the Ikhwan.
'I will destroy theatre!'
Leader of the MMA in Gujranwala Qazi Hamidullah was quoted in Khabrain as saying that if a cinema was converted into theatre in Okara, he would personally go there and destroy the theatre. He had just come out of prison after being bailed out in a case of attacking a marathon race in Gujranwala. He said he would go on struggling till all fahashi was finished. He said the PMLN could join the MMA. He added that PPPP and PML were old rivals (saukan) and Musharraf should choose to cohabit with one out of the two.
Destroyer of all marathons!
Quoted in the Nawa-e-Waqt, JUI MNA Gujranwala Qazi Hamidullah said that he was a destroyer of marathons and would go anywhere to disrupt them in the name of Islam. He said that the MMA was to become the strongest force in Pakistan next year or 2007, when the next elections are held.
George Fulton and Samiul Haq
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in the Nawa-e-Waqt that after Maulana Samiul Haq was maltreated in Belgium and the EU as part of Pakistan's parliamentary delegation, UK citizen George Fulton was given full citizenship of Pakistan by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on the basis of 66 per cent public endorsement. The writer said that Samiul Haq should now invite Fulton to his seminary in Akora Khattak and show the EU that he was more enlightened (roshan khayal).
